Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Aaron Gilmore
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Claudette Hauiti
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List MP
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MPs' expenses
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National Party
We blogged in May about National Party List MP Claudette Hauiti making an unacceptable cock-up. Unfortunately, she's in the news again for another lapse of judgment as the Herald reports:
National Party MP Claudette Hauiti has given up her parliamentary charge card after she used it to pay for a personal trip to Australia.
"I went to Australia. It was travel only and way outside Parliamentary Service guidelines," she told Fairfax Media.
She said the trip over Christmas last year and other questionable spending, including refreshments for a hui on a marae, had cost about $200, which she has since repaid.
"Of course it's absolutely no excuse for not knowing the Speaker's rulings. It is my responsibility and I didn't do it."
Parliamentary Service refused to provide a total of unauthorised spending, or comment on the matter.
"A new release of parliamentary information protocol has just been presented for debate in the House, and it would appear that this information is covered under it.
The Service cannot make any comment. Any requests for information should be made to the member," a spokeswoman said.
That's two strikes for Claudette Hauiti. We don't care that she is a National Party MP; she has let herself fall into the trap of questionable use of taxpayer funds, and that is, in our book, a big no-no.
Ms Hauiti was ranked at #63 on the National Party list in 2011, but entered Parliament with the resignation of Aaron "Don't you know who I am" Gilmore. We don't know if the 2014 National Party list has yet been set in stone, but Ms Hauiti his quite possibly cost herself any chance of promotion.
MP's of all stripes need to remember it's not their money they're spending. It comes from those of us who pay taxes, and we deserve better.
