Herald on Sunday

Dear Sir Douglas

In more than 40 years observing New Zealand politics there have been few Ministers of the Crown I could say I truly admired, and fewer still in the National Party. You were one of those very few.

Your comments, reported in this morning’s Herald, on the international travel subsidy granted in perpetuity to retired long-term members of parliament, caused me for the first time to question my assessment. They were, in a word, shameless.

We are talking here of a $10,000 a year perk to allow you and your wife to holiday overseas, the greater part of a business class return for two to Europe. Most New Zealanders will struggle to afford one such trip. Among pensioners the number will be even smaller.

This was your reported response to the public outcry over this perk, as you prepared to set off on your next taxpayer-subsidised jaunt, to Boston:

“I have no qualms whatsoever. Most years we have gone somewhere. … I worked extremely hard down there in Parliament. This was part of the deal, and as long as I can use it, I will use it…. You better keep paying your taxes.”

Well, if working hard were the criterion for qualifying for a $10,000 a year bonus for life, most New Zealanders would qualify. And if, after all those years as a Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister,  “the deal”, as you call it,  left you with “hardly any money” you must have lived well.

What is missing from all of this is any sense of vocation. No-one forced you to go into politics. Like most members of parliament you traded your career – in your case in the highly paid profession of the law -  for the power and influence that most candidates for political office really seek. You used that power and influence well. You made a difference to New Zealand society. But you also relished the power, the influence, the plaudits when you retired, and the highest honour which this nation can bestow – your knighthood.  Those, and a reasonable pension, should be your rewards, not free junkets overseas for the rest of your life.

In the end, those who seek political office offer themselves as public servants in the truest meaning of the term. They are there to serve the public, not to enrich themselves or live privileged lives on the public purse.

You should have stayed out of this unseemly squabble, Sir Douglas. You have done yourself no favours.

Brian Edwards