Former MPs and their partners have spent just over $700,000 of taxpayer money on travel in the previous year, Parliamentary Service figures reveal.
Former members spent just over $353,000 while their partners and spouses spent about $349,000.
Taxpayers have paid for $700,000 travel for ex-MPs and their partners and spouses. Photo: 123RF
MPs elected before 1999 are entitled to claim taxpayer funding for a limited amount of travel after they have left office.
The biggest-spending couple in the year to 30 June included former National MP John Luxton and his partner Mary Scholtens who claimed a total of $25,126.
The MP to rack up the highest individual bill was former Labour MP Sir Kerry Burke, who spent $16,147.
Sir Lockwood Smith and his wife spent $21,000. Photo: NZ GOVERNMENT
Former National MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lockwood Smith, who is now High Commissioner to London, and Lady Alexandra spent about $21,000.
Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and her husband Burton, spent about the same amount.
Lady Jane Kidd, wife of former National MP Sir Douglas Kidd, was the highest spending spouse or partner in the past year, clocking up $13,859. Her husband spent $7,180.
The total amount spent by the former MPs and their partners was slightly less than claimed in the year before, when the figures were revealed for the first time.
In the past, Prime Minister John Key said there was a case to keep entitlements for former MPs.
"I can't really in good faith go along and say 'look, you worked for a whole lifetime and you got this entitlement and now I'm going to take it off you'.
"It would be like retrospectively changing, say, superannuation for people who have relied on getting it. I just think it's fundamentally not fair," he said.
Mr Key said those MPs had fewer benefits while they were in Parliament, on the understanding they would have this travel entitlement when they retired.
