That's the only response to this morning's news that Anne Tolley wanted to pay Paula Rebstock $3,000 a day to tell her how to further victimise the poor. Its an obscene amount of money, and getting it so you tell the government how to shit on people who get that in 3 months simply makes it more obscene. And it really makes you wonder what Rebstock has got on Tolley to make her offer so much.
But it gets worse;
Based on a standard eight hour work day, that constitutes a rate of $375 an hour: three times the normal maximum daily fee specified by Cabinet's guidelines.
State Services Minister Paula Bennett, objected, saying it was out of line.
[...]
Mrs Tolley said she was prepared to pay for the best, but now realised her request wasn't justifiable.
"Well it wasn't in the end, and we renegotiated. The papers show [Mrs Bennett] came back to me, saying it was way out of kilter - I had no idea there was a structure in place," she said.
"I had no idea there was a structure in place"? Tolley has been a Minister for seven years. In that time she's been Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, and now Social Development. In that time, she's made dozens of appointments. And she "had no idea there was a structure in place"? Bullshit. The fee structure is clearly set out in a Cabinet Office Circular, and its her job to know it. If, after seven years, she's still ignorant of the basics of that job, then I think its time we got a new Minister.
