this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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They're paying him for the opportunity cost, that apartment could be either rented out, or sold and the money invested elsewhere. Whether he lives in a property he owns, or one that's rented, the cost to the taxpayer is the same.
But he could live in Premier House, which will have to be upkept anyway, and not take the allowance.
It sounds like Premier house needs some quite serious maintenance work, that would make it very difficult to actually live in while the work is being done.
The issue isn't that, it's that other previous PMs who lived in their own residences in Wellington did not receive the payment. Chris Hipkins for example.
Given the retoric from the PM about belt tightening and benefit bashing, and given he owns the apartment outright with no mortgage, the optics are pretty poor.
Also he just announced he is paying it back, btw.
Hipkins has his primary residence in the Hutt Valley though, Luxon lives in Auckland
Ah yes, good point. I stand by my general point though, that it's bad optics given all he's being harping on about lately.
No argument about that, he walked right into this one with his mouth open.