MPs fight to shield expenses

National and Labour are believed to have discouraged Maori Party MPs from publishing their expenses, in a desperate rearguard action to stem the flow of disclosures.

The 19 MPs of the Green and Act parties revealed details of their air travel, taxis and hotel and rental accommodation this month, as part of a Herald on Sunday investigation into more than $15 million of Parliamentary expenses.

In doing so, the MPs broke with a longstanding cross-party consensus: that MPs' expense spending should be kept private. But in Britain, a similar "conspiracy of silence" had dramatically disintegrated with the leaking of MPs' expenses rorts.

In New Zealand, this newspaper's investigation and the resulting disclosures prompted an about-turn from Prime Minister John Key, who asked for a cross-party inquiry into Parliamentary transparency.

The Speaker, Lockwood Smith, is expected to call a second meeting of that inquiry in the coming fortnight.

The Maori Party, whose leaders are ministers in the National-led Government, had initially promised to disclose its expenses. But now, spokesman Derek Fox says the expenses will not be revealed till the Parliamentary committee has reported back with its recommendations.

Maori Party whip Te Ururoa Flavell said: "We want a little bit of clarity around MPs' privacy."

National and Labour are loath to even consider disclosing how MPs spend their $14,800 expense allowance.

The new senior Government whip is Chris Tremain, who will now represent National on the cross-party committee. He said: "I think there's a consensus there that there does need to be improved transparency but in the context that the situation in New Zealand is nothing like the debacle in the UK."

MPs are likely to fight the Speaker's proposal for retrospective disclosure.

This month, Labour revealed to the Herald on Sunday that it had quietly "reined in" the travel spending of two MPs.

And the Herald reported that at least 34 MPs from outside Auckland used taxpayer-funded flights to support candidates in the Mt Albert byelection.