Attn: Fish_Boy... Where does Chris Carter live?

Can he at least explain his expenses? Double the average MP at over $200,000.

In the first six month of 2008 alone he spend $83,000 on limos and taxis... WTF? Even with a stripper in there it'd be hard to rack up $450 a day!

This surely ought to all change for sure - but calling the Nats on something it seems Labour perfected is pretty smug.

I know exactly where he lives since he's right next door to my old man. Regardless of that, or of how much he spends, I think you're missing the point of fishboys post totally.



(Not that I agree with him posting it but hey)

I think you will find that he is the Labour spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, so he travels alot.

In limos and taxis?

Of note, he actually LIVES in his electorate. His partner works 5 minutes away.

Not like Rob's mate Bill, who lives in Wellington, along with his wife who works in Wellington, along with his children who go to school in Wellington, but claims that he lives in his electorate.

fushboy is having a FIELD day with this but really it's just a case of the pottle calling the kettle the N word

and LOL and behold





only in NZ

They are just talking about Chris Carter on Natrad, all of Chris Carter's travelling was signed off by the cabinet (remember it includes time when he was a minister) and all of it was official business.

There are no private holidays or trips in his spending.

Hope that clears things up.

Darren Hughs is also just discussing this, and appparently measures will be taken to prevent this happening.

But you can pop on to ZB for your daily dose of ill-informed outrage if you like.

moi outraged? such entertainment as this can hardly elicit outrage from this quarter of the compass

$450/day on taxis/limos isn't explained just because it was approved by cabinet.

I hope they got a bulk deal on the caviar/bubbly in those limos.

Meanwhile, back in Bill Englishville, have a look at this - it is the form MP's fill out to establish their primary place of residence:

http://blog.labour.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/skmbt_c35309080517400.pdf

The important question is the last one:

“Is this residence the place you would normally go to when you are not on parliamentary business?”

If the double dipper of Dipton will really be up the creek without a paddle if he listed Dipton just to claim a bigger allowance.

We need to know the answer to this question.

fishy: surely you could do an OIA request?

this expenses/allowances issue shouldn't become a this MP/that MP scenario - I am sure thats what the ploticians want as all parties have people that take full advantage of the system in a less than honourable manner

I want the whole system looked at and changed to curtail profiteering

Parliamentary services report directly to the Prime Minister and are not covered by the OIA.

Fishboy is complaining about double-dipping which I agree is wrong.

Set aside the amount paid for a second and look at the ethics of it... and who is taking advantage of it - not who is just claiming the most in dollar value.

You'll see that Phil Goff and others are doing the same thing - so he can't claim any real moral high-ground. Owning a place in Welli which he rents out and then lives in another taxpayer funded home.

Goff's gripe is that 'look! he gets more' despite the fact that he's basically still doing the same thing.

This piece of deflection - that Labour did it as well - is quite strange, since it has been mentioned in the press on numerous occassions that Helen Clark did not allow the rort Bill English is pulling when she was PM.

John Key's first line of defence was based on EXACTLY that premise, that his lot were new in office so they were unfamiliar with the rules.

But now that seems to be changing?

Goff is doing it now. As are others. English's position of note is the amount of money, not that he's alone in doing it.

You can't stand on moral high ground in saying he's doing something bad - punish him.. We're doing it too but not as bad so... look! over there!

Goff is a rudderless idiot for Labour.

I wondering how long it would take for the odd (but standard) right wing victim defence to appear.


Bill English has been caught with his hand in the till!


It's not fair on the misunderstood rich! It's all Phil Goff's fault!

Phil Goff is Keisha Castle-Hughes Father

Where did I blame Goff?

Even a run of the mill Labour supporter would accept the hypocrisy of it if they looked at the baseline details of this. It doesn't excuse English/Nats at all but it's a bit rich to try to play moral high-ground when you're doing basically the same thing. Which is exactly what Labour have done and are still doing.

But you're a different sort so will read into everything and look for the status, private school, whiteness, big business conspiracy etc etc when, in reality, most of the time it simply isn't there.

I actually think this has to stand - we can't deny politicians the right to own investment property in the city.
It's about main residence, which actually seems to be at least partly covered in that form for MPs fish_boy posted.

Well that's another aspect of the double dipping thing, when we see Ministers renting out their properties to OTHER MP's.

No argument with them owning investments, but double dipping from the taxpayer like that is pretty shonky.

ministers slash MP's I should say

YEAH!

Yet another innovation our regime will bring to the citizens of our fine civitātis.

The best bit about that image? The observing monkey on the left is wearing LEOPARD SKIN PANTS with his top hat and morning coat!

Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?

OUR Queen's Wharf = Coliseum

I think we've markedly improved this thread. And the future of all our peoples.

HOW MUCH IS YOUR HEREDITAMENT WORTH, KULAK?

here ya go rob ya brown shirt



In the blog, Mr Carter focused on his spending while he was a minister in the previous Government but made no mention of the $57,137 on airfares, $14,476 for surface travel and $10,667 on Wellington accommodation he has spent so far while in opposition.

He said people could see some of the places he has visited by going to his website.

"There you can see the names of some of the more than 300 schools and ECEs [Early Childhood Education centres] I visited as Minister of Education, and some of the more than 200 events I attended as Minister of Ethnic Affairs. I once went to eight Ethnic festivals in Auckland on one Saturday!" Mr Carter wrote.


He also criticised journalists.

"Journalists were told that last year I went on eight international trips. Shock horror! Of course it's not much fun visiting a country for two days, with back to back meetings and speeches - especially with flight times sometimes as long as 17 hours!

"These same journalists seem to forget that, as Education Minister, part of my job was to help foster the flow of international students - a business currently worth $2.3 billion dollars each year, and our fifth largest export industry! Never let facts stand in the way of a good story, journalists!"

- NZPA

I'm yet to see any plausible explanation for spending $450/day on taxis/limos for six months.

It sounds worse if you consider weekends or at least 2 days a week days off... it means the days he did work he spent $632/day on this.

That is a huge amount of money. You could buy a nice car and hire a driver for less than that.

frist Rob hounded Field until his empire fell apart

Carter its your turn!

I hired a limo a couple of years ago for a mate's wedding. It cost $175/hr including driver.

If you hired it for 3.5 hours a day, five days a week for six months it would still be cheaper than Carter's.

obviously Carter is a higher being than you rob

perhaps he was being driven to his second home in dipton