NZ PM Luxon claiming $52k accommodation handout

NZ leader Chris Luxon has been claiming an allowance for living in his own flat in Wellington.

In a chain of events kicked off by Usman Khawaja, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon has been outed as in receipt of a taxpayer-funded allowance to live in a flat he owns outright.

Mr Luxon hosted the Australian and New Zealand Test teams at a reception on Monday at Premier House, the country’s Wellington residence for sitting prime ministers.

At the event, he told players he was not living at Premier House, instead staying at his own apartment.

That kicked off enquiries as to whether Mr Luxon was also claiming a rarely-used allowance offered to non-Wellington based prime ministers for their accommodation in the capital.

Turns out, he did.

Kiwi outlet Newsroom reported on Friday morning Mr Luxon is claiming the allowance, which if claimed in full, would bump his salary up by $NZ52,000 ($A49,000).

Mr Luxon is wealthy, owing to his previous career as an executive for Unilever and Air New Zealand, owning seven properties without a mortgage according to his financial interest disclosures.

As well as the Wellington apartment, he owns six properties in Auckland; including two that his family uses –  a home in the eastern suburb of Remuera and a holiday home on Waiheke Island – and four as investments.

One of those investments is his electorate office, a property which is also subsidised by taxpayers.

At the national carrier, he reportedly earned $NZ4.2 million ($A3.9 million) in his final year as chief executive, a role he held for six years.

The accommodation allowance, if claimed in full as per his entitlement, would push Mr Luxon’s annual income to over half a million dollars.

The New Zealand prime minister’s salary – which is set by an independent authority – is currently $NZ471,049 ($A440,000).

The revelation could be seriously damaging to Mr Luxon given he campaigned on “ending wasteful spending” from the previous Labour government.

The prime minister’s office refused to answer AAP’s enquiry earlier this week as to whether he was claiming the allowance.

On Thursday, a quarterly entitlements report confirmed Mr Luxon had claimed the payment as prime minister.

Newsroom says he is the first prime minister to do so in at least 34 years.

The scandal is now bulletin-leading news – and it all started with the Australian Test opener’s comments at the start of a press conference on Tuesday.

Mr Khawaja was one of a number of Australians to spend time chatting with Mr Luxon – a self-described Test cricket tragic – at Monday’s function.

“The prime minister said he couldn’t live in his place,” Mr Khawaja said, referring to Premier House.

“He said it was condemned, the kitchen was condemned … I said, ‘why don’t you live here?’ He said, ‘I’m actually not allowed, it was condemned’.”

“I said ‘what?!’ You’re the prime minister, fix it!’

“He was like ‘oh, that costs money’. I’m like, ‘surely there’s some money in the New Zealand system!”

Mr Luxon later denied using the word ‘condemned’ but didn’t disagree with categorisations of Premier House as unliveable.

A report from the Premier House Board outlining the maintenance needs of the property is currently being considered by the government.

Jacinda Ardern is the last prime minister to live in the Thorndon property, a few hundred metres from Parliament House, given Chris Hipkins, who took over following Ms Ardern’s 2023 resignation, already lived in Wellington.