National leader Christopher Luxon was the only MP to submit his personal interests late to the registrar for pecuniary interests.
Every year, Parliament publishes a list of MPs' financial interests for the sake of transparency. It includes what property is owned by each MP, their mortgages, any gifts they have received and other details.
In his comments recorded at the start of the 2022 document, released on Wednesday, Sir Maarten Wevers, the Registrar of pecuniary and other specific interests of Members of Parliament, said just one member submitted their returns after the deadline - Luxon.
"Standing Orders make it clear that members are responsible for submitting their returns by the deadline," he writes.
"Because of the importance of providing transparency over members' interests to the House and the public, I have decided to include the late return in this summary, but I am disappointed to have to draw to the attention of the House the existence of a late return, once again.
"I encourage all members to continue to lend their support to the Register, in all respects, and hope that next year, there will be full compliance with the timeline set by the House for submission of members' returns. It is not an onerous matter to fulfil this obligation."
A spokesperson for Luxon said: "Christopher's pecuniary interests return was submitted after the deadline. It should have been on time and we regret that it wasn't".
Annual returns must be transmitted to the Registrar by the last day of February. As Wevers alludes to, it's not the first time an MP has missed the deadline. Last year, Labour's Michael Wood, Naisi Chen and Ginny Andersen were all namechecked for being late.
The summary of Luxon's interests shows the former Air New Zealand chief executive owns seven properties - two residential properties and four investment properties in Auckland and one residential property in Wellington.
Upon taking the National Party leadership, Luxon told Newshub he had no idea how much capital gains he had made from those seven properties over 2021. One of his properties, a Remuera house worth $7.68 million at the time, had increased $2.3 million over the year prior. That came during a time of incredible house price growth nationally, which has since slowed.
"I haven't thought about the number or thought about that at all," he said last November.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern owns her family home in Mt Albert, Auckland. Over the course of last year, she received a number of gifts, including a Christmas gift basket from the Ambassador of Cuba, garments, and tickets to All Blacks games.
Other interesting gifts listed in the document include:
- A kids Papakāinga set from Rakau NZ - Law Alliance NZ Limited to Labour MP Tamati Coffey
- Vehicle service from Mahindra NZ for Labour's Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki
- A Pakistani office rug from HE Ashraf Janjua for Labour MP Ingrid Leary
- A number of gift boxes and souvenirs from China, Korea and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office to National MP Melissa Lee
- A Hajj Box and Al-Jazeera Perfumes gift box from the Qatar Government to Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta
As happens every year, a large number of MPs also received tickets to rugby matches and concerts as well as to go on helicopter rides.
The full list for each MP can be found here. It contains MPs' financial, business, and personal interests, including certain assets, debts, and gifts they have received. It is a snapshot of interests between February 1, 2021 and January 31, 2022.
