Jacinda Ardern says she's not 'the right person' to judge whether Labour MPs have been overcharging taxpayers

Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she's not the right person to determine whether two of her Labour MPs have been taking advantage of taxpayers.

Labour MPs in Hutt South had been renting their office in Petone for $1500, but charging taxpayers $6000 a year and keeping the difference for the Labour Party. 

On Friday, Labour's Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen told 1 NEWS she recently terminated the arrangement that she said had been running for 25 years, and that she inherited from the Labour MP Trevor Mallard, following criticism from National MP Chris Bishop.    

"That's not the arrangement any longer," she said.

"I was unaware of the arrangement and I felt that it wasn't transparent enough so now I've taken action to make sure it is transparent."

At the Prime Minister's weekly post-Cabinet press conference today, 1 NEWS asked Ardern if it was ethical for her MPs to be charging taxpayers four times what they paid for their rent and keeping the difference for the Labour Party.

"Obviously the right person to make those judgements is not me, we need someone other than me making those calls and that of course would be Parliamentary Services," Ardern replied.

"They are the ones that approve whether or not they consider those lease arrangements to be appropriate." 

 When asked if MPs were ripping off taxpayers by taking thousands of dollars every year and giving it straight to the Labour Party, Ardern replied: "Ultimately this is a lease arrangement that according to those who oversee all of our lease arrangements [Parliamentary Service] has declared that it is below market value, therefore in terms of the rent and therefore from their perspective doesn't present a problem."

Ardern said she didn't know how much money the Labour Party has obtained from the controversial rental deal.

Asked if she would support the National Party's calls for the Auditor General to investigate the matter, Ardern said: "Look as far as I'm concerned, the people we need to be checking on these arrangements are involved in checking on these arrangements."

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