Why Additional MPs May Cost Millions

Susan
Edmunds Money Correspondent

An
overhang
resulting in additional MPs could end up costing about $5
million more in the first year.

On the preliminary
results, the typical 120-seat Parliament is expected to
increase by 11 MPs, with both National and Te Pāti Māori
winning more electorate seats than their party vote entitles
them to.

National has an extra seven “overhang” MPs,
while Te Pāti Māori has an extra four.

Victoria
University associate professor in public management and
policy Barbara Allen pointed to the new Speaker’s
Determination for 2026 which gives members of parliament who
are not ministers a staff allocation of $215,818 in their
first year in parliament, and a non-staff allocation of
$62,145.

They also receive a salary of about $180,000
a year, a basic expense allowance of $19,300, IT hardware
funding of $10,400 and $13,682 once per term in staff IT
costs.

That adds up to a total of about $500,000 per
member of parliament in the first year.

With 11 extra
MPs, that adds at least another $5.5 million.

“That’s
based on an additional non-ministerial list MP. That doesn’t
include other allowances they might get,” Allen
said.

In addition, parties receive funding according
to the number of members in their caucus.

“There’s
$26,500 per caucus member. That seems to be an extra amount
that’s not directly related to the MP
themselves.”

Offices would need to be found for the
additional MPs.

She said overall the cost of the
additional members of parliament would still be small in the
scheme of the overall cost of government.

Simplicity
chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said data showed the average
cost per member of parliament had dropped a little from more
almost $750,000 in 2012, in 2025 dollars, to less than
$700,000.

He said the bulk of that cost related to the
wider business of running parliament rather than directly to
the MPs themselves.

“The bigger issue is the erosion
of trust, we have record low trust in government, in
politics. This kind of stuff makes it worse.”

Geoff
Plimmer, associate dean of research in the school of
business and government at Victoria University agreed the
additional cost was a drop in the bucket.

“It’s
trivial when the government spends billions and billions
every year. We need to pay our MPs reasonably well to get
quality people. This is the democratic process at work.
There are other discussions to be had about whether we need
to look at the design of MMP but those are for down the
line.”

He said it could be moot whether another 10
seats could be added to Parliament’s relatively small
debating chamber.

“They’re often not all always there.
Maybe they can hot desk in parliament and experience what
life is like for many public servants and
others.”

© Scoop Media