"Rest assured members, any decision I make to sever our perks won't be taken lightly..." 18 November 2010

Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith sits in his parliamentary seat with a bag of money chained to his right wrist and a hatchet in his left hand. He assures MPs that any decision he makes to 'sever our perks won't be taken lightly'. Refers to the saga of 'decisions' over MP travel perks - such as those used by Act leader Rodney Hide to take his fiance on an overseas holiday - the first decision was that they would be kept secret. (Previously the quarterly release of members and ministers expenses disclosed the amount spent on this perk, and this is how Mr Hide's trips to Europe and Hawaii with his partner were exposed). Immediately following this decision Labour and others made their expenses public which forced National to follow suit and resulted in the travel perk being cancelled altogether. Lockwood Smith says he will inform Inland Revenue and the Remuneration Authority of his decision - the Remuneration Authority makes decisions on MPs' base salaries and could increase these to compensate for the loss of the perk - the suggestion in the cartoon is that MPs would not suffer from the loss of the perk.

Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).