The new PM, Christopher Luxon, has been under fire recently for claiming an accommodation allowance to live in his Wellington home he owns mortgage-free while simultaneously asking government departments to cut their costs.
This got me thinking - what do MPs usually spend? There is often public outrage at any mention of MPs’ spending in the news, but often these stories lack context about what is a ‘standard’ level of expenditure - a baseline to compare to.
The graphic below shows how parties’ spending per seat trends over time, spending for the highest-spending MP for each party, and what each MP’s average spend is across their time in Parliament.
Key takeaways
- On a per-seat per-year basis, Mana has spent the most, followed by Te Pāti Māori and National. These parties are/were very electorate-focused, so that may be one factor contributing to their higher level of spending.
- The Greens spent the least out of all the major parties per-seat per-year.
- Spending for all parties was reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- National tends to outspend Labour both in Government and in Opposition.
- Ministers, Leaders of the Opposition, and party leaders tend to be the largest spenders in their parties, although there are exceptions.
Notes
- Records started in Q3 2009, so data for only half the year is present.
- Spending will vary considerably depending on whether a Member is a Minister, Leader of the Opposition, or a party leader.
- Wellington-based MPs are not eligible for Wellington accommodation expenses.
- Expenditure for overseas travel was excluded - certain Members such as Ministers for Foreign Affairs tend to have very high overseas travel expenditure which can skew the data.
- The data for 2023 includes Ministerial spending for the Sixth Labour Government only.
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