Just when you thought Michelle O'Byrne's mismanagement of the Department of Health and Human Services couldn't get any worse, new figures reveal that in the six months before she started sacking people, Minister O'Byrne actually employed hundreds more staff.
Between 1 July 2011 and 31 January 2012, the Government paid $7 million in redundancies to 206 sacked staff.
But, in the six months leading up to 1 July 2011, Minister O'Byrne employed an additional 260 staff. That's in spite of Premier Lara Giddings finally saying in February 2011 that spending had to be reined in and even though Minister O'Byrne spent $3.7 million making 130 positions redundant in 2010-11.
By employing additional people one month, and then paying redundancies the next, Minister O'Byrne has effectively wasted at least $7 million of taxpayer's money.
It's little wonder that the budget is in such a mess with this sort of mismanagement and incompetence going on.
