Green MP Tamatha Paul is unhappy at how some MPs have used their accommodation allowance. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
In her speech, Paul said Act Party MP Parmjeet Parmar, who owns the largest number of properties of any MP this term, bought five new houses since the coalition was elected. <\/p>\n
National MP Katie Nimon was listed as having bought three residential properties. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s talk about the National and New Zealand First MPs\u201d Paul said. \u201cIncluding Grant McCallum, who bought a house in Wellington, so they can pay themselves the accommodation allowance while taxpayers pay their mortgage off.\u201d <\/p>\n
Clips of the speech were posted by Paul to TikTok and Instagram, with the former version attracting more than one million views. <\/p>\n
McCallum corrected the record in the House, denying he had purchased a property in Wellington and was paying it off with the accommodation allowance. <\/p>\n
National\u2019s Northland MP Grant McCallum has corrected the record in the House. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
McCallum later took to Facebook to deny the allegations again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI did buy another home in Paihia. The reason is simple. It was so I had somewhere to stay when I was working in the mid and far north of my electorate. I do not rent it out,\u201d the post said. <\/p>\n
He said his own investment in the property saved taxpayers money because he didn\u2019t need to stay in motels when he travelled to the Far North. <\/p>\n
McCallum requested Paul apologise for the mistake, \u201cpreferably in Parliament\u201d. <\/p>\n
In a statement request, Newstalk ZB asked Paul whether she planned to apologise to McCallum. <\/p>\n
A copy of his assets declared in pecuniary interests were included in the request, which didn\u2019t list property in Wellington. <\/p>\n
The statement Newstalk ZB received listed a number of donations from \u201cthe property industry\u201d the coalition received during the 2023 election, which Paul said were \u201call on the public record\u201d. <\/p>\n
Paul also included that landlords received a \u201c$2.9 billion tax cut\u201d since interest deductibility was reinstated. <\/p>\n
\u201cNational can play games through the media if they want, but the Green Party stands by calling out their record on housing and who\u2019s actually benefiting from it,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
It did not include any mention of McCallum or his request for an apology. <\/p>\n
Paul declined Newstalk ZB\u2019s requests for an interview. <\/p>\n
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is happy to move on from her colleague’s comments during a debate. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Newstalk ZB followed up with Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick. <\/p>\n
Davidson said the record had been corrected and was happy for the issue to be left at that. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the heat of the moment in the chamber, things are often said off the cuff by MPs across the House,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
This morning Greens co-leader Marama Davidson was challenged over whether the Greens believed mis- and dis-information was bad for political discourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do, and that has been corrected in the house,\u201d she told Herald NOW\u2019s Ryan Bridge Today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about online? What about in the court of public opinion? What about the internet?\u201d Bridge pressed. <\/p>\n
Davidson responded that the party had \u201cput up the correct information into the dialogue\u201d, though she did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principle remains the same – it\u2019s to show how disconnected privileged MPs are from the experiences of ordinary people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven more so when you can buy a whole extra property and you don\u2019t need any help to pay it off. You can just have an extra property in your back pocket, in your handbag.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCallum said he was disappointed the Green Party\u2019s leadership was letting the matter go. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it reflects poorly on them and their leadership. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of New Zealand, they want to hold other politicians to a high standard and have them do it to themselves,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
McCallum said he still believes an apology from Paul would be appropriate.<\/p>\n
Troy Matich is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2025, previously working for RNZ as a producer for Morning Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Green MP Tamatha Paul is unhappy at how some MPs have used their accommodation allowance. Photo \/ Mark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,74,52687,2741,19686,11220,16843,2082,2518,42,10053,1362,1132,12936,130,6368,3556,43,90,4762,17357,814,52301,14447,40182,9345,175483,131,61,40,38,41,39,21539,102],"class_list":["post-587249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-after","tag-apologise","tag-claim","tag-clip","tag-comment","tag-false","tag-for","tag-green","tag-headlines","tag-house","tag-made","tag-million","tag-misleading","tag-more","tag-mp","tag-national","tag-news","tag-on","tag-party","tag-paul","tag-property","tag-racking","tag-refuses","tag-refusing","tag-speech","tag-tamatha","tag-than","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-views","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}