Remuneration Authority says it doesn’t control how MPs’ housing allowances allocated

The Independent Remuneration Authority, which sets MPs pay, says they don’t make the rules on how accommodation supplements are allocated.

National minister Louise Upston is among MPs collecting $1000 a week to live in her own Wellington apartment which is within the current rules.

Chair of the authority Geoff Summers said they set the maximum amount for accommodation supplements at up to $52,000 per year for a minister, but had no jurisdiction over if people used it for their own homes.

“We don’t have any authority to say if that’s in their own home, you know something they own or something they don’t.

“That’s quite a new thing, we hadn’t even thought about that - but even if we had we couldn’t have done anything different. We just set the maximum and then other people administer it and audit it.”

Summers said he did not know how many people claimed the maximum allowance but he imagined many would not as they would be able to rent something that cost less.

“I understand the optics of a minister living in something that they own and claiming that don’t look good but unfortunately we can’t do anything about that, we just set the maximum.”

MPs pay and entitlements are set by the Independent Remuneration Authority and are reviewed every three years.

Under the existing rules, all MPs are entitled to claim an accommodation payment as long as they are not typically based in Wellington. The payment is designed to cover the MPs’ costs while they are away from home.

Ministers can claim up to $52,000 a year, while a regular MP can claim a maximum of just over $36,000.

Upston has said she “followed the rules” around the accommodation allowance and is “comfortable” with them.

On Wednesday 27 May ahead of Question Time Upston did not resile from her allowance benefits.

“I have followed the rules, and I have followed the rules in my pecuniary interest register, and I’m not going to say anything else on the matter, because I’ve answered multiple questions on multiple days, and I’m comfortable that I’m approaching it no differently than other MPs and other ministers in this Parliament and in previous Parliaments,” she said.

Summers said politicians’ pay and allowances were set differently.

The authority set pay for about 2500 people, not just for politicians and salaries were set according to criteria in the Remuneration Act, he said.

The authority had to maintain “fair relativity with elsewhere”, he said.

“So when we did the last salary review which was published in April 2024, we have to do it after each election, we looked at elsewhere being a whole lot of other parliaments, we looked at the British parliament, the Canadian parliament, Ireland, Australia and we looked at a number of Australian states as well.”

That was an extensive investigation which resulted in a 50 page report, he said.

The pay review also documented what MPs actually do, he said.

“I mean these people work incredibly hard, incredibly long hours, they’re the legislators of New Zealand and the pay that we set for them we set fairly.”

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