$300K for part-time work

Courts Minister Rick Barker has almost tripled the pay for the chairman of the Human Rights Review Tribunal (the one which recently gave a prisoner $1200 compensation for hurt feelings), ignoring the advice of his officials which said the post should be paid $600 a day.

Instead Mr Barker is giving away our taxes at the rate of $1,600 a day. Now I am not against paying a good rate for a role, but surely even Rick can see that having the part-time Chair of a quasi-judicial body earning more money ($299,000) than a full-time Court of Appeal Judge ($292,000) is simply daft. The Tribunal Chair is three levels lower in the judicial hierarchy, yet gets paid more.