• @[email protected]
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    -21 year ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      21 year ago

      But he could live in Premier House, which will have to be upkept anyway, and not take the allowance.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 year ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 year ago

          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.