Generous pay rises to the tune of $10,000 for parliament backbenchers haven't gone down at all well among the hoi polloi, particularly those at the bottom of the income ladder such as home support workers who are getting a miserable 50 cents rise an hour. It beggars belief how in these modern times, such an appalling disparity can be allowed to exist. When bailed up in the corridors of parliament by the press last Thursday, MP Judith Collins was able to retreat by the skin of her teeth into her office, with a "no comment" response. But Te Ururoa Flavell when questioned, replied: "Actually I don't even know what my salary is, to be truthful." Really?
Anyone who has no idea what he or she is being paid, in my mind, is being paid way too much.
On a different slant, but still to do with the powers that be, throwing away our money, you'll recall when former Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee got rapped over the knuckles after trying to squeeze unnoticed through a side door to avoid security at Christchurch Airport late last year.
Well that little incident escalated into a major-scale inquiry costing taxpayers a cool $43,500. Surely it could have been effectively dealt with by summoning the security staff responsible into the airport manager's office and giving them a dressing down. That's how a private company would have done it. Governments world-wide have this curious mentality of seeking out opportunities to rack up huge bills to solve what often is just a simple problem.
Following on from last week, my Honda is well into its refurbishment programme. With plenty of life in the car yet, I've decided that investing a few hundred dollars makes excellent economic sense. A very smart set of hardly-used alloy wheels arrived from Christchurch last week and have been fitted out and balanced at the local tyre shop. It's the old story - you get a job like this done, and a day later a customer satisfaction questionnaire email appears on your computer screen.
"On a scale of one to 10, how happy were you with this service? Spend just a few minutes doing this quick survey and you will double your Fly-Buys points on your next purchase, blah blah". This once innovative style of marketing has become very tiresome and companies would do their customers a huge favour by giving it a rest. Anyway, my car is now in the panel and paint shop, getting a jolly good spruce up. By this time next week, my pride and joy will be all finished and ready for the road.
-Brian Holden has lived in Rotorua for most of his life and has been writing his weekly column for 11 years.
