The Lighter Note

Thursday, 26 May, 2011 - 00:00

Who wants half a stadium?

For those who missed it, The Note retrospectively enjoyed this slanging match between Premier Colin Barnett and opposition leader Eric Ripper before the budget was released last week.

Referring to the speed and efficiency of various program cuts and price hikes, Mr Ripper was questioning the premier about his ability to rein in the spending on senior government executives in government trading enterprises, taking special note of the $750,000 payout to departing GESB CEO Michelle Dolin.

“The way that the salaries and packages for several GTEs are constructed is not appropriate for people working within the broader public sector,” Mr Barnett said.

“Why don’t you have a conversation with them, and why isn’t that effective?” Mr Ripper then asked.

“Why is it not effective? It is not effective because these agreements were signed by the leader of the opposition when he was Treasurer,” Mr Barnett responded.

“That is exactly the reason. They are gradually being worked out in one way or another.

“As reappointments or new appointments are being made, they are being made on a proper basis rather than including bonuses and all the other components that the leader of the opposition put in them. I think it is just a bit rich that the leader of the opposition would raise an issue such as that.

“He referred to speed and efficiency. Talk about ‘Mr Speedy’ and ‘Mr Efficient’! Has anyone seen the report on the Office of Shared Services? How much did the Labor government lose on that – $500 million?

“We could have built half the stadium for the price of a project that does not work.”

Cabin fever

Over in Canberra, the House of Representatives’ infrastructure and communications committee is making inquiries into the lofty issue of cabin crew to passenger ratios on domestic flights.

Apparently operators of domestic airlines carrying between 16 and 216 passengers must carry at least one cabin crew member for every 36 passengers, although some airlines are permitted to operate on a 1:50 ratio in some cases.