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Labour has continued its attack on Pansy Wong, revealing new pho
tos which it says show the MP for Botany using her ministerial title
to promote her husband's hovercraft business in
China.
Prime Minister
John Key concedes this could have been enough
to get her sacked from
Cabinet even without her abusing the taxpayer
travel perk
.
Wong resigned as a
Cabinet minister last Friday, admitting she misused her taxpayer-funded
travel subsidy by paying for her husband Sammy Wong's
travel to China in 2008, while he was on personal business.
Labour said the issue is black and white, claiming pho
tos from a Chinese website show Wong using her ministerial position
to promote her husband's business.
And the Opposition is calling for her
to be ousted from parliament.
Labour leader
Phil Goff said it is vital
to prevent corruption that
MPs do not merge personal business interests with parliamentary entitlements.
But
Key does not have the power
to sack Wong as MP for Botany because she was elected
to the position.
"If Pansy Wong was a Minister
today, then there would be a question that needs
to be answered. On the face of things it appears
to be in breach of the Cabinet manual, but she's not a Minister, and I can't sack someone that's quit,"
Key said.
In March last year, former Minister
Richard Worth also came under fire, accused of promoting his business interests on a trip
to India.
Labour MP for Dunedin North,
Pete Hodgson, said the issue has been ongoing.
"Pansy Wong's been doing it and nobody thought
to go
to Cabinet and say s
top doing if after Richard Worth. I wonder who is next?" Hodgson said.
Speaker's decision delayed
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House, Lockwood Smith, said he will meet with authorities
tomorrow night
to discuss scrapping the international
travel perk that sparked the controversy.
Smith had been expected
to make an announcement on the matter
today, but instead, he has decided
to consult with the Parliamentary Service Commission before deciding if changes will be made.
Smith will meet with the Commission
tomorrow night.
Smith recently moved
to make international
travel expenditure by MPs less transparent, before backtracking after party leaders, including
Key, spoke out against it.
Smith has defended MPs' use of the subsidy, taking the view that seeing it is funded out of their own salary packages it should be their business what they do with it, as long as it is not abused.
Earlier
today, Prime Minister
John Key said MPs' travel perks were a "relic of the past" and should be sc
He wants an end
to the subsidy system and the Remuneration Authority
to be charged with looking at how MPs' salaries could be adjusted
to counter it.
"Realistically, I think it's hard
to justify
to the New Zealand public that the taxpayers out there should be paying for an MP
to take a holiday,"
Key said on TV ONE's Breakfast this morning.
Other MPs have also got themselves in hot water over questionable use of the subsidy and
Key said it was destroying public confidence in the way the system worked and undermining the institution of parliament.
"The strong view of National Party MPs is that this entitlement has outlived its usefulness and should be
abolished as soon as possible,"
Key said.
