Double-jobbing MP to stand down from council role

Tuesday, 7 May 2024

NZ First MP Jamie Arbuckle will stand down as a Marlborough District councillor in October and says he will start donating his council salary to charity.

The MP and councillor has been working two jobs since being elected to Parliament last year. Earlier this week, he told Stuff he felt he was doing both jobs well enough to keep both salaries - and so would continue to do so.

Those comments triggered a political brouhaha, drawing in Prime Minister Christopher Luxon who said he wouldn’t allow a National MP to continue working a second job.

“From my own point of view, I think being an MP of Parliament is a full-time job. Period,” he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins jumped in too.

“Well, it's a clear case of double dipping. And the reality is he should have stood down as a regional councillor or a local councillor as soon as he became a member of Parliament,” he said.

As a backbench MP, Arbuckle had a $163,961 salary. The base pay rate for Marlborough councillors was $40,250, but it could be topped up with extra responsibilities.

Following the criticisms, NZ First confirmed through a statement that Arbuckle would stand down as a councillor in October - waiting until then so as not to cause a by-election.

Arbuckle, in Tuesday’s statement, said he would be donating his council salary.

“In light of feedback and upon reflection, any remuneration I have received in my role as local councillor since the date of the general election in October last year, as well as any future remuneration received until I stand down, will be donated to a local district community charity,” he said.

But National MP Stuart Smith, the electorate MP for Kaikōura and Marlborough, said many in the community had been raising questions for some time about why Arbuckle was continuing with both roles.

“There’s been confusion about what his priorities are,” Smith said.

“They want us to concentrate on the things that matter to people. That means as an MP, being a member of Parliament and devoting all of your time to that job. That’s what I do. I have no time for anything else,” he said.

Arbuckle said he had always wanted to stay on as a councillor until October 2024 so Marlborough ratepayers weren’t lumped with a “costly $130k+ local by-election”.

Arbuckle had stepped back from some council duties

Arbuckle was the chairman of the Marlborough District Council’s economic, finance and community committee until he was elected as an MP.

But in November, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor reshuffled the council’s committees amid Arbuckle’s entry to Parliament.

Taylor said she and Arbuckle had a conversation about his workload following the election, and the pair agreed he would step back from chairing any committees.

He had stayed on as a member of the economic, finance and community committee but stepped down from a number of other council committees including chairing a long-term plan working group.

He had also been scratched from seven subcommittees: audit and risk, CBD and parking, commercial events fund, housing for seniors, MDC Holdings and Marlborough Airport Ltd, climate change and the hearings committee.

Two portfolios held by Arbuckle – resource consents and financial reporting, funding, policy, investments and debt management – had been reassigned to other councillors.

At the time, a former council candidate called for Arbuckle to resign.

Cyril Dawson, who just missed out on a Blenheim ward seat in 2022 by 13 votes, questioned why he had not stood down.

In Wellington, 26-year-old councillor Tamatha Paul had stepped down after being elected as a Green MP for Wellington Central.

The Wellington by-election was expected to cost $120,000.

“If the Wellington City Council has to hold a by-election … then why can't we?” Dawson said in November.

“But there's got to be accountability, a by-election is democracy.”