Fran O'Sullivan: Travel's not a perk, it's just part of the job

Judith Collins defends the $11,536 she has spent on petrol for her car over a two-year period. Photo / APN

Judith Collins puts on this rather delightful lip curling act whenever she has to put impertinent reporters in their place.

Collins doesn't display quite the menace that former prime minister Helen Clark used to convey with her famous "death stare", but she is scary enough to freeze out those reporters who have yet to grow tough hides of their own.

So it was entertainment central this week to watch The Crusher repeatedly refuse to indulge TV3's Patrick Gower by giving him full answers to questions over why she was "Parliament's biggest gas guzzler".

"Paddy," she intoned patiently, as if she was dealing with a small and rather dim child. "Paddy ... the use of my vehicle is within the rules."

And so it went - on and on.

In the annals of big-spending politicians, the Police Minister is hardly a standout performer.

The $11,536.96 Collins has spent filling her Mazda's tank is not outrageous. It does cover a two-year period, after all.

But coming on top of this week's other faux outrages - like the $60,000-plus the Foreign Minister spend commandeering an Airforce 757 to get to Vanuatu for another of those interminable Pacific meetings, the PM's helicopter trips and the $800,000 explosion in the PM's security detail costs - it helps to create an impression that the current bunch of Cabinet ministers rather like a gold-plated lifestyle.

There is an element of truth to this (most politicians do use their perks). It's also great entertainment. Most of us enjoy a bit of schadenfreude when we see the great and the good pulled down a peg or two.

But the Labour Party is on a hiding to nothing if it thinks that incessantly milking such mini-scandals is going to persuade New Zealanders to vote Key's Government out of office.

Typically, departing Labour MP Pete Hodgson was deputed to run the latest "scandal" involving the Prime Minister. Hodgson was in high dudgeon over the fact that Key even took his bodyguards with him to his holiday place in Maui.

The MP reckoned it was to make the PM feel more important.

But Collins points out that there have been threats against Key and one person currently faces charges on this score. No sane person is going to begrudge John Key the necessary protection that befits him and his office.

There is also a counter-case to be made for beefing up Cabinet ministers' travel arrangements.

It is unfathomable that the Prime Minister occasionally uses a lumbering Airforce 757 (which is mainly used for carrying troops) to trek offshore. The airforce planes are prone to breakdowns as happened in the recent McCully episode.

But it would surely make sense for the Government to buy a small jet for the Prime Minister to use when travelling offshore. This would make his travel arrangements more efficient and free up more time for him to run the Government.

In McCully's case, I suspect he has become increasingly miffed at having to undertake tortuous travel arrangements to keep pace with his very busy offshore diary. He is probably doubly miffed at arriving ragged and tired to front-up to yet another regional pow wow, only to see his Aussie counterpart arrive fresh off an Australian Government plane.

Buying a jet would not be an inordinate waste of Government money. It would simply be a recognition that this small faraway country is now involved in an increasing number of international relationships which have to be kept sweet if New Zealand is to prosper.

The days when the international dance card for a New Zealand prime minister (or foreign minster) was comprised of meetings at APEC, the Commonwealth Heads of Government and the occasional swing through to Europe are long gone. Those important meetings remain.

But the PM and his foreign and trade ministers also have to cover China, India, the Middle East, the Asean nations, Australia, the United States and much more as they try to cement political and trading relationships.

The McCully episode does expose a weakness in the PM's Cabinet arrangements. The Foreign Minister's rationale for using an airforce plane to get to Vanuatu, rather than flying commercially, was that he had to be back to New Zealand for the official visit by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Frankly, he shouldn't have gone.

The Vanuatu meeting could have been deputed to his associate minister or a Ministry of Foreign Affairs senior diplomat. The trouble is, McCully's associate minister happens to be Trade Minister Tim Groser, who also spends much, if not most, of his time offshore.

Another factor driving this increasing preoccupation with politicians' spending habits is the incessant and growing news media focus on the trivial. While this media fixation continues, Labour will continue to plumb the depths of absurdity. No winners here.