MoB about to hit the roof

FROM MY CORNER .... with Ann Brunswick

You’ve probably all seen the recent media coverage showing that work is progressing apace on the $200 million restoration of our City Hall. One of the project's outcomes will be to restore the ground floor windows on the building's Ann Street side that were covered up when the Museum of Brisbane was established a few years back.

Once the refurbishment work is finished, those inside the building will again be able to see the outside world through the windows fronting King George Square and lining the Ann Street wall. So where will that leave the museum?
Well, my spies at City Hall tell me the MoB is earmarked to return to the upgraded City Hall in a new position.
Apparently plans are afoot to site an expanded MoB on the building's roof, which the City Hall kindergarten once occupied.

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Somebody working in the state public sector sent me a copy of an advertisement for a job vacancy in the Department of Transport. Why they would do that is beyond me. They know perfectly well how happy I am at The Indie and how fat my salary package is.
The editor even sweetened the deal at our last contract negotiations by throwing in a free full membership for me at Tattersall’s Club. So that’s where you'll find me at lunchtime and most of the afternoon if you are keen to track me down.
Applications closed recently so it is too late for you to apply. Nevertheless, for your information here are a couple of paragraphs from the ad in question:
“The Department of Transport and Main Roads is seeking an accomplished Engagement and Communication Strategist (A08) to build stakeholder focus knowledge and capability for its People and Capability Division. The primary responsibilities of the Engagement and Communication Strategist are to implement People and Capability Division's stakeholder focus strategy:
• developing, delivering and evaluating cost-effective activities to embed a stakeholder focussed culture
• being a key source of specialist knowledge and authoritative advice about stakeholder focus; and
• supporting divisional staff in conducting engagement and communication activities to achieve the best possible business outcomes for the division and its stakeholders."
Does anyone out there have any idea what this job is all about? Did you make sense of any of it?
For your information, an AO8 position in the state public service attracts a salary of somewhere between almost $98,000 and more than $103,000.
Now, just bear in mind that the recently delivered 2011-12 State Budget contained overall spending initiatives totalling more than $43 billion.
Of that amount, almost $17 billion is for public service wages. Now, leaving aside the cost of paying our more useful public employees – nurses, teachers, police officers, ambos and the like – there must be a lot of room for cutting that wages bill by giving the pink slip to people such as the boffin who wrote the job description cited in the previous item.