The Green Party is accusing the Government of hypocrisy following revelations that it is paying Paula Rebstock $2000 a day to chair the Child Youth and Family review panel at the same time as it refuses to pay Parliamentary cleaners a living wage so they have to work two jobs just to get by.
“Under the National Government there is one standard for its mates and a different standard for ordinary New Zealanders,” said Green Party Workplace Relations spokesperson Denise Roche.
“Paula Rebstock is getting paid $2000 a day to chair an investigation into Child Youth and Family which is twice what people normally doing that work receive, and we now learn that Social Development Minister Anne Tolley wanted to pay her as much as $3000 a day.
“The comparison between Paula’ Rebstock’s hourly rate of $250 and the minimum wage of $14.75 is stark.
“People working for the Government as social workers or at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) don’t get the same kind of consideration. Social workers have just lodged an equal pay case and MBIE staff had to walk off the job to try to get a pay increase to catch up with the cost of living.
“And in the height of stinginess Anne Tolley is ramming legislation through Parliament under urgency today that will deprive hundreds of thousands of people who have been underpaid a day’s benefit payment.
“When you consider all that, it's unacceptable that she would even be thinking about giving her mates $3000 a day,” Ms Roche said.
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