Minister for Public Sector Reform, John Robertson, is struggling under the weight of his new portfolios having failed to issue a single Public Sector Reform, Special Minister of State or Corrective Services press release since he was appointed to his new portfolios on 14 September.

Shadow Special Minister of State, Chris Hartcher, said the public were entitled to question why John Robertson needed a small army of Ministerial Staff to help him do ………well, nothing really!

“John Robertson has completely lost what little interest he had in his other portfolios since his promotion last month.

“He’s issued no public statements under any of his three other portfolios of Public Sector Reform, Special Minister of State and Corrective Services.

“He still collects the increased pay-packet and still maintains a small army of staff to help stir his coffee and straighten his table cloth.

“But when it comes to actual work we’ve seen nothing from the Minister.

“John Robertson has spoken on only one piece of legislation for all of 5 minutes in the Parliament this year (on 23 June 2009) but he still has a staff of ex-Unions NSW speech writers and spin doctors.

“At 30 June this year he had 6 full time Ministerial Staff being paid between $40,000 and $120,000 and a Chief of Staff on even higher wages.

“The incompetent Rees Government is supposed to be process of implementing the ‘most significant reform to NSW government in 30 years’ but it doesn’t even warrant the occasional progress update from the Minister for Public Sector Reform.

“It’s been a month and a half since John Robertson was appointed to his new portfolios which is exactly the same length of time a mysterious cone of silence has been hovering over his other responsibilities.

“If John Robertson can’t handle more than one portfolio at a time then Nathan Rees should find someone who can,” Mr Hartcher said.