Act leader David Seymour said he raised the issue of such travel soon after entering Parliament, and "I've never seen politicians who are normally so opposed to each other close ranks so rapidly".
"I was basically told that I was having sour grapes because as a very small party I would be unlikely to qualify for one of these junkets.
"These guys are paid three times the average salary. Air travel has never been cheaper and, frankly, if the rest of the world is a mystery to these guys, maybe they shouldn't be in Parliament."
(On relating this piece of information to spouse he replied, of course, if you had got into parliament, and been offered the trip, I would have gone with you. I replied, no. Because I wouldn't have gone. As is normally the case, we usually only disgaree about matters hypothetical.)
2 comments:
How people change! I heard Rodney Hide on Radio Live this afternoon, vigorously defending the parliamentary trip with the most bizarre arguments-like they nne to thank their spouses for putting up with such a sh*t job and of course 'its no holiday but really very hard work....yeah right!!
Without doubt some MPs work exceedingly hard. But conviction MPs (I don't care which persuasion) shouldn't need perks.
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