Phil Goff to go unpaid during campaign

Auckland mayoralty candidate Phil Goff is standing on a platform of eliminating wasteful spending and says he will take leave from Parliament without pay to campaign during the last month of the local body elections.

MPs continue to be paid during general election campaigns and if they are away from Parliament with the leave of party whips, but Mr Goff said that would not be right given he would be focussing on the campaign and would offload much of his Parliamentary work to colleagues. He would ask Parliamentary Service to halt his pay for that period of up to a month before the elections.

"If I'm not doing my Parliamentary business, then I'd feel more comfortable if it was leave without pay if they can do that."

He joked he could put in a claim for lieu days, given the amount he had worked over his Parliamentary career. "But it's about perception and it would be better if I could get leave without pay."

Mr Goff has also invested in a separate cell phone to make phone calls related to the campaign and said he had driven himself round Auckland to media interviews rather than take taxis funded by taxpayer. "I've got to be pretty scrupulous about separating the two roles, which is a challenge." He conceded he could pay for taxis out of his own pocket rather than drive "but you know me, I don't have a Scots background but I should."

Mr Goff is campaigning on a platform of eliminating wasteful spending and is renowned for being a skinflint. When he was Labour Party leader he stopped using the Crown limo service after realising how much it cost and instead caught cabs, drove himself or got staff to drive him. He claimed he also scolded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for booking him into suites in hotels on overseas trips. "I said I don't need a bloody suite. I don't get home until midnight and then I'll be out first thing. I need a room with a clean bed and a shower. I try and treat it as if it was your own money. For the average New Zealander what we spend is still a s***load of money from their viewpoint and you try to keep it as lean as you can."

Mr Goff does intend to resign from Parliament if he is successful which would force a byelection in the Mt Roskill electorate late next year. Prime Minister John Key did not believe Mr Goff should resign before the Auckland elections. He said it was also possible Mr Goff could stay on as MP for a few months after becoming Mayor to avoid the need for a byelection although he could not draw two salaries. If an MP resigns after April in an election year, Parliament can decide not to have a by election if 75 per cent support it.

"So you can make a case that says is it worth the $250,000 for a byelection?"

Mr Goff has relinquished his Auckland issues portfolio to Phil Twyford with immediate effect, but hoped to keep defence and ethnic affairs when Labour leader Andrew Little announces his reshuffle next week. He would also ask David Shearer to take over some of his duties in the Mt Roskill electorate over that period. Mr Shearer is the MP for neighbouring Mt Albert. Mr Goff is standing as an independent which he said would allow him to go for the best deal for Auckland without being bound by party ties.

"[China's Communist leader until 1992] Deng Xiaoping said he didn't care whether the cat was black or white, as long as it caught mice. Deng was a Communist Party leader but he was also very pragmatic."

He said it would make it easier to work with the central Government, which will still be National if he wins next year. "And if I was dealing with Andrew Little as Prime Minister, I have to deal with him on the basis that I'm out for the very best deal I can get for Auckland, not for the best deal I can get for the National, Labour or any other party." He said he would also need support from across the political spectrum to become the mayor. "As Mayor, your role is to try and pull together your team on Council and why would you put an artificial barrier of partisanship up between you and the people the various wards of Council elect?"

Since 2013, MPs away without leave for more than three days have their pay docked by 0.2 per cent of their salary for each day - $300 a day on Mr Goff's salary of $150,047 a year. Mr Goff said he did not want to go AWOL.

His superannuation pay out would have been even larger had he not been voted out of Parliament in 1990.

He entered Parliament in 1981 when the old gold-plated superannuation scheme was in place but that was paid out when Mr Goff was voted out of Parliament in 1990. By the time he was re-elected in 1993 that scheme had ended and a less lucrative offering put in place. MPs now put in up to 8 per cent of their salary to get the maximum 20 per cent contribution from Parliament.

He will also qualify for travel entitlements for MPs elected before 1999, entitling him to international travel up to the value of return business class flights to London each year.