PM Christopher Luxon has decided not to claim a $52,000 accommodation allowance for living in his Wellington apartment and will repay $13,000 he had received.
Initially defending his entitlement to the allowance, Luxon reversed his stance after legacy media scrutiny and claims of hypocrisy in light of public service budget cuts from Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
The allowance covers accommodation costs in Wellington for the Prime Minister. It has seldom been claimed by his predecessors, making Luxon the first in over three decades.
Luxon told Heather du Plessis-Allan of Newstalk ZB the controversy was a ‘distraction.
‘For me, I’m well within the rights, and well within the rules, but frankly it’s a distraction – I will live on my own costs,” Luxon said.
Luxon said he used his own apartment as a temporary measure while waiting for repairs and maintenance on Premier House to be carried out. A report by the Premier House Board said the 160-year-old building was facing major issues due to its age.
Image credit: Ballofstring, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bad move Mr Prime minister.
Never apologise or cave to the woke left media.
It won’t earn you their respect, they won’t commend you for appeasing them. They will still smear and slander you every single chance they ever get.
The allowance was perfectly legit and you were entitled to it. Kerry from Newstalk found out this morning (much to her dismay) that most listeners didn’t really care whether you took the allowance or not.
“But what about the OPTICS 😱” is just a journalist talking point, and a weak one at that. Especially when the very same journalists were all obnoxiously gleeful with praise as our single source of tooth ran the economy into the ground for the past six years. If they wanna talk about hypocrites, they need only look in the mirror.
You should have told them to go play marbles in the unemployment line with Newshub staff.
I agree, never apologise, it only shows weakness. And it was legit. But all actions will be judged, and it is certainly a conflict of interest to be renting his own place back to himself.
My questions is why is this allowance on the table at all?
Many people move towns, and country’s for that matter and have to pay for their own accomodation, and on salaries far less, so why should this man be any different?
It’s a good point you make, fair enough.
And I FULLY support the idea of ALL our politicians taking some well deserved pay cuts, believe you me.
But then someone needs to campaign on that, write a bill or make a motion and take a vote etc. Change the law where it’s needed and then appropriately excoriate and prosecute those who overstep.
I don’t really care much for Luxon to be honest, but what he did was legal so for me there’s no issue. And criticising the guy for trying to maximise his own personal profits, again completely legally, just reeks of desperation on the part of the media. Their equilibrium is always when a socialist, left wing party is in power. Whenever it’s anybody else, they all start to descend into an extended Monty Python skit. I get that, but it’s their smug and sanctimonious sense of superiority they still somehow think they’re entitled to that p*sses me off. They still believe they’re somehow the “king-makers”, like it’s still the 80’s and the internet doesn’t exist. It’s pathetic and moreover it’s ANNOYING.
And leftists always seem to equate any successful businessman with criminality, always because of their own failures and petty jealousy. Case in point: they just decreed Trump guilty of “fraud” for his dastardly act of applying for bank loans and then fully repaying them. It’s preposterous.
So again, no great love for Luxon, but it was obvious to me this whole debacle was just legacy media trying to manufacture something to print this week while they all nervously watch Newshub lie down on the chopping block.
Well appreciated discourse here. Thank you gentlemen.
Legacy media = dead man walking.
Lux the Cux.