John Armstrong: Government ferocity over Bailey's salary ... then what?

Not just angry. Very angry. Extremely angry, in fact. And most definitely angrier than anyone else.

The breaking news yesterday that the person who reads the news on TVNZ had managed to double her salary to a whopping $800,000 prompted the Government to invoke its golden rule when faced with embarrassing revelations about extravagance in state organisations for which it is responsible: get angry.

Other Administrations might have rationalised Judy Bailey's pay rise as a necessary market forces-driven response to the commercial threat now posed by TV3 and Prime to TVNZ's ratings dominance in early evening news and current affairs.

But unlike other Governments, Labour has never been willing to risk becoming the victim of political fallout from the day-to-day managerial decisions of state companies over which it has no control.

So its response yesterday was predictably indignant and particularly hostile.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen spoke of Government unhappiness cascading upwards to prime ministerial level after he, as one of TVNZ's two shareholding ministers, had been informed of the salary hike.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was certainly not amused. She had even put the stop-watch on Bailey and timed her effective on-air work time at just four minutes a day.

Repeatedly accusing TVNZ of a "culture of extravagance", the Prime Minister repeatedly fired "please explain" missives at the Government-appointed directors on the TVNZ board as she and Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey, the other shareholding minister, came under intense questioning in Parliament yesterday.

But the Government's attempt to distance itself as much as possible from TVNZ's decision to give the other mother of the nation what Act's Rodney Hide described as the "mother of all salaries" was not going to ruin Opposition MPs' fun.

Adding to the piquancy of watching the Prime Minister squirm was the fact that Helen Clark had not only ridden to power in 1999 attacking public sector extravagance, she had subsequently forced a clean-out at the TVNZ board over the $5.25 million payout to John Hawkesby.

Even better, the Prime Minister was on the record as being "revolted" by Paul Holmes' $760,000 salary at TVNZ.

Winston Peters took special joy in ribbing Labour's supposed social conscience by noting that Bailey was now getting $384 an hour - some $130 more than a single pensioner got a week. "What on Earth is going on in her ministry when such hypocrisy lies so rampant in our politics?" he pondered majestically.

National's Gerry Brownlee was more to the point, wanting to know what Mr Maharey would do with TVNZ's board if it told him it simply believed that approving the pay rise had been the right thing to do.

The Prime Minister deflected the question, however, saying she was not going to "prejudge" what the board might say to shareholding ministers.

By now, Mr Brownlee was suspicious the Government was all bluster and no action and that all that it intended to do was "blow a lot of hot smoke" over the issue, then do absolutely nothing.

With Parliament rising for the Christmas break this week, the Government does have some respite.

But given that Judy Bailey's new salary will be sticking out like a sore thumb in TVNZ's annual report next year for all to see, the Government will look a paper tiger if it does nothing in the meantime.