Explanatory note

This note is not part of the determination, but is intended to indicate its general effect.

This determination, which comes into force on 1 November 2008, determines that the travel, accommodation, and communications services set out in the document entitled “Directions and Specifications for Services and Funding Entitlements for the House of Representatives, its Members, Former Members, and Certain Electoral Candidates 2008” (the 2008 Directions and Specifications) and signed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives on 28 October 2008 are travel, accommodation, and communications services in respect of members of Parliament. Those services are in addition to the travel, accommodation, and communications services determined in the Parliamentary (Official Inter-Parliamentary Travel Programme) Travel and Accommodation Determination 2007.

This determination replaces the Parliamentary Travel, Accommodation, Attendance, and Communications Services Determination 2007, which determined that the travel, accommodation, and communications services of members of Parliament were those set out in the document entitled “Directions and Specifications for Services and Related Funding Entitlements for the House of Representatives, its Members, and Former Members” signed by the Speaker on 18 October 2007 (the 2007 Directions and Specifications).

Some of the main differences between the 2007 Directions and Specifications and these new 2008 Directions and Specifications are that the 2008 Directions and Specifications—

• specify the entitlements of certain electoral candidates in the period between polling day and the formal declaration of the election results. In the case of a general election, the entitlements of these candidates differ depending on whether the candidate was a member of Parliament before polling day. Candidates who fall within the definition of a candidate for re-election must continue to be provided with services and funding entitlements as if they were still a member of Parliament in the same office or position held before polling day (for example, a party leader). Candidates within the definition of a candidate for initial election must be provided with entitlements set out in clauses 7.8 to 7.20 of the 2008 Directions and Specifications. The position of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker is summarised in clause 3.41 of that document:

• provide for technical changes to the period for which certain benefits and privileges continue for former members. These changes do not alter the total time for the availability of the benefits and privileges:

• remove the freeze on former members' travel rebates in respect of parliamentary terms after the 2002–2005 Parliament. The 2007 Directions and Specifications provided that members had their travel entitlements frozen at the level for which they qualified at the end of the 2002–2005 Parliament. There is no change in the requirement that the travel rebates apply only to persons who were members of Parliament before the 1999 general election:

• make technical changes to provisions regarding members' support staff and administration of funding entitlements in respect of support staff.

The Speaker of the House of Representative is required, by section 20B(3) of the Civil List Act 1979, to ensure that a copy of Parts 1 to 3 of the 2008 Directions and Specifications—

• is available for inspection free of charge, or for purchase at a reasonable price, at Parliament House in Wellington and at any other place or places that he or she appoints:

• is available on the Internet.