Wednesday, 09 October 2024 13:55

Air Miles

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

OPINION: The latest travel receipts for MPs are in (April – June 2024).

Running the cutter, we have National on a total of $697,315 - an average of $13,946 for its 50 MPs.

Act spent a modest $103,536 for an average of $9,412 for 11 MPs. NZ First spent a total of $70,566 or $8,820 for eight MPs.

Labour averaged $21,156 for 35 MPs - a total of $740,481.

The Greens are usually big carbon emitters, and this year is no exception.

They spent no less than $284,780 for an average of $17,798 for 16 MPs. Te Pāti Māori spent $188,887 - the highest average of $31,481 for its six MPs.

Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer easily burned the most jet fuel, spending $60,990 – a lot for an MP who is in Opposition and hates oil and gas exploration.

More like this

ACT, farmers push for changes to Paris Agreement

The ACT Party's call for a better deal on the Paris Agreement on climate change is being backed by farmer organisations.

Dreams aren't plans

OPINION: Milking It reckons if you're National, looking at recent polls, the dream scenario is that the elusive economic recovery finally roars to life.

If voters see some growth and wages rising faster than prices, the government could say they've "fixed" things as they ride into the next election.

Back here on Earth though, the economy they inherited is a basket case, and the long-term headwinds are fierce.

Political commentator Liam Hehir says, "dreams are not plans" and if the turnaround doesn't come in time, National may have no choice but to go negative.

"Everybody wants to fight on the economy if they can. But when neither side has a compelling story, the contest shifts to other issues. That's not new. In fact, it's the stuff of politics everywhere, always."

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.