Scrap travel rebates, says Hide

Act Party leader Rodney Hide has called for the rebates on MPs private travel to be scrapped after Parliament's Speaker Lockwood Smith said on Friday he would no longer name MPs who claim the rebates.

Mr Hide told National Radio this morning the Speaker of the House is the "wrong person" to be deciding what MPs' allowances should be.

"What we need in my view is for the expenses of MPs and their salaries entirely set by an independent authority. It shouldn't even be anything to with the speaker because he's in a no win situation," Mr Hide said.

"It should be [up to] an independent authority like the Remunerations Authority and it should be open to the Official Information Act.

"[Mr Smith is] in a no win situation because he's in charge of Parliament, he's an MP, he's got to work with the MPs - well he's the wrong person to be deciding these matters such as what is an acceptable allowance and what isn't."

Hide, who was busted for taking his girlfriend on a $22,000 trip to Hawaii and Europe despite making a name for himself as a "perk-buster" said the rebates should be scrapped.

"We have a 19th Century system of paying and rewarding MPs that really isn't up to scratch in the 21st Century," he said.

"Why don't you just pay the MPs, don't allow the rebate and cover their legitimate expenses?"

While the Green Party is looking at releasing their rebate details anyway, Hide could not speak on behalf of all his MPs on whether they would follow suit.

"I don't think the speaker can put the genie back into the bottle, because people quite naturally expect transparency and accountability and it would be impossible to explain, in this day and age, that this rebate is being paid out of an MP's salary, even though it is."

- Herald Online