Retiring MPs fought rule that froze travel perks

A freeze to stop the retirement travel perks of some MPs from building up was reversed in 2007 by former Speaker Margaret Wilson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Former Speaker Margaret Wilson says retiring MPs lobbied her in the lead-up to the 2008 election to drop a provision that would have stripped them of some of their generous retirement travel perks.

Ms Wilson had included a clause in her 2007 Speaker's Directions that froze at 2005 levels the travel discounts MPs elected before 1999 would get when they left Parliament.

However, it was removed in a subsequent set of rules a week before the 2008 election, when it would first have had any real effect.

Yesterday, Speaker Lockwood Smith asked his officials to provide him with details of the freeze after the Herald revealed it had been put in place but then removed.

Ms Wilson - who does not get the travel subsidies because she was elected in 1999 - could not remember the provision in detail but said that after Parliament rose for the 2008 election, some MPs who were leaving had approached her to dispute it.

She had sought the views of all parties and agreed to drop it after only one objected.

Only MPs elected before 1999 get the travel perks when they leave Parliament and the value of the subsidies increases with every term they serve.

The freeze at 2005 levels would have affected 26 MPs elected in 1993 and 1996 who were still in Parliament in 2008 by pegging their discounts at 60 per cent and 75 per cent respectively, rather than the top 90 per cent subsidy they will now qualify for.

Thirteen did not return after the election and can now claim the subsidy.

Ms Wilson said there was nothing unusual in the change - MPs frequently lobbied the Speaker for changes or disagreed with the way provisions were applied.

The rules regarding the entitlements of MPs and former MPs were reviewed by the Speaker annually and any changes were based on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Service Commission.

The perk is available only for MPs elected before 1999, and the freeze was first mentioned in 2003 by the MPs' grouping on the Parliamentary Service Commission in an apparent bid for fairness in the treatment of members elected soon before 1999 and those elected after.

Ms Wilson said she remained unhappy with the apparently lifelong entitlements former MPs elected before 1999 had, saying she believed they sorely needed to be reviewed.

She did not recall it as being "a freeze", but her directions refer to the subsidy levels being "frozen" for MPs at the 2005 level.

When the 2008 directions came out without the provision, the determination putting them into effect also noted they "remove the freeze on former members' travel rebates" that had applied the previous year.

HISTORY OF THE FREEZE
August 2003: Parliamentary Service Commission (cross-party group of MPs) notes MPs elected after 1999 get no retirement benefits and recommends the retirement travel subsidies of current MPs elected before 1999 be frozen at 2005 levels.

November 2003: Speaker Jonathan Hunt notes the change is proposed.

December 2007: Speaker Margaret Wilson inserts it into her Speaker's Directions.

November 1, 2008: After lobbying from some retiring MPs, Margaret Wilson issues new directions that remove the freeze on rebates.

August 2009: Speaker Lockwood Smith orders a briefing on the issue.