MP Chester Borrows has lashed out at the media for missing the point of a recent overseas junket paid for by the taxpayer.

National MP Chester Borrows has again lashed out at the media, accusing it of only being interested in the "muck raking of politics".

In a comment piece in a Taranaki newspaper, Borrows wrote that reporters in Parliament's press gallery had failed to report the benefits of a recent Speaker's delegation to Europe because "constitutional diplomacy" didn't fill column inches.

The Whangaui MP returned from a two-week European trip during the weekend, which travelled to Poland, France, Britain, Germany and Ireland.

The trip had a budget of close to $140,000, almost $100,000 of which was for travel, with a number of the MPs on the trip believed to have downgraded tickets from business class to economy to take their partners along for free.

On Tuesday Borrows told reporters he had learned "lots" on the trip which he believed represented good value for money for taxpayers.

But he also said the press gallery took New Zealand's democracy too lightly, "because...you're used to giving us the fingers, rather than examining these issues with any level of scrutiny."

Borrows then put pen to paper, claiming that the Speaker "frequently runs afoul of the gallery media who seem to prefer a relationship based on mutual disrespect with all politicians".

In the Stratford Press he wrote that he'd "never seen an article in a newspaper which reports with any degree of pride on the performance of New Zealand constitutionally, diplomatically or even respectfully."

"We have spent forever telling ourselves that New Zealand is a pimple of the bottom of the globe, and nobody of any substance either knows where we are, what we are about or could give a stuff either way."

Yet after a week in Germany Borrows "didn't meet a single German who hadn't been to New Zealand or had a child who had been or a close friend or relative who wasn't about to go or about to come back".

"They do know who we are and what our brand is. The Polish the same, the Irish and French very similar," he wrote.

The "scathing regard" that the press gallery media had for parliamentarians and the "egalitarian nature of New Zealanders" meant "no virtue could ever be found in a politician".

The Speaker of the House, David Carter, was visited two times a month by overseas Parliaments - as opposed to Governments, Borrows wrote.

"They do this because we are seen as world leaders in managing a stable and long-running democracy and because we can pull together the disparate groups, creeds and ideologies that make up our parliament and still maintain functioning, certain and steady minority governments. Other countries don't have our record in being able to do this."

"Not only that, they value it much more highly that the average Kiwi and certainly more highly than the average gallery journalist. I guess this proves the adage that familiarity breeds contempt," he wrote.

"In a relationship based on mutual disrespect, such searching questions are seldom asked.

"If they were, the answers would not be printed."