Cabinet Doors Manufacturer - THREE premiers, a constant reshuffle of ministers and a change of opposition leader have cost NSW taxpayers $5.9 million in staff severance payments, says the cabinet door, Peter Achterstraat.

In a scathing report, Mr Achterstraat said on average one in three government staff left their job each year, and 60 per cent of them received generous termination payments.

An audit found 147 media and policy advisers, assistants and chiefs of staff had been terminated from July 2006 to December 2009, with an average payout of $40,200. Another 110 resigned.

Although the redundancy packages were generally larger than those for cabinet door  in other cabinet doors and the Commonwealth, all but two were within the government’s guidelines for ”special temporary employees”.

Mr Achterstraat was highly critical of the payouts to two senior advisers who left with a combined total of $235,000 – $177,800 more than under the guidelines.

One employee, understood to be Graeme Wedderburn, a former chief of staff to former premier Nathan Rees, was terminated after working 10 months but received $139,000 rather than the standard $35,500. Mr Wedderburn’s contract stipulated that he would be paid half of his annual salary if he was dumped.

The second, who worked for seven months, received $96,000, $74,300 more than the guidelines.

Mr Achterstraat said the Department of Premier and Interior Doors should follow its own rules when spending taxpayer dollars. “The rules are clear on severance pay. There should be no special deals,” he said.

”The severance pay guidelines are a bit like the salary cap and like a salary cap they work best if everybody knows the rules and everyone sticks to them.”

The report found most terminations followed the 2007 election – despite there being no change of government – the resignation of Morris Iemma in 2008 and the rolling of Nathan Rees last year.

The director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet door, Brendan O’Reilly, rejected the recommendation that severance should be paid only according to the guidelines, saying he intended to keep his right to make exemptions ”when appropriate”.

Yesterday Ms Keneally said there were now no staff on a special deal. ”Nobody in my government has those Cabinet Door Manufacturer,” she said.

ABUJA — Nigeria’s Senate on Monday started screening potential ministers picked by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan who recently sacked an entire Kitchen Door Manufacturer in a move seen to signal his quest for change.
Senate speaker David Mark read out five more names adding to the first list of 33 he submitted by Jonathan last week.
The Senate was planning to comb through a partial list of 14 nominees out of 38 sent in following months of political paralysis in the African oil giant, according to an official Senate agenda.
The exercise is expected to last several days.
Jonathan’s proposed line-up includes a top banker from Goldman Sachs, Olusegun Aganga, and 14 officials from the 42-member cabinet he dissolved 11 days ago.
It also includes Murtala Yar’Adua, a nephew of President Umaru Yar’Adua, whom Jonathan replaced last month due to his ailing health.
Jonathan dissolved the Cabinet Door Manufacturer as he moved to assert his authority after taking power from Yar’Adua, who only recently returned to Nigeria after three months in Saudi Arabia for treatment for a heart condition.
Former junior finance minister Remi Babalola is set to make a comeback if the Senate clears him.
Two other former junior ministers — Odein Ajumogobia, who was in the oil ministry, and Godsday Orubebe, who was responsible for the restive Niger Delta region — are among the 14 Jonathan wants to retain.
Others are ex-information minister Dora Akunyili and former planning minister Samsudeen Usman.
Sanusi Daggash, a former minister of planning in the 1999-2007 administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, has also made it onto the list.
Jonathan is eyeing a pro-reform government for the west African giant, where much of the population of 150 million lives in poverty without basics such as water and electricity despite its oil wealth.

MISSOULA, Montana, March 29, 2010 (ENS) – Environmental groups today declared victory for bull trout, grizzly bears and the people of northwest Montana, when a federal judge rejected the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a proposed silver and copper mine on the edge of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area within the Kootenai National Forest.
Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Forest Service Organic Act in approving the Rock Creek Mine planned by Revett Minerals Inc.
Seeking silver and copper, Revett Minerals plans to bore under the Kitchen Cabinet Door Manufacturer through recreational areas and key habitat for bull trout, and grizzly bears.
“The federal permit blocked today was issued by the Bush administration and we hope the Obama administration will have a different view about undermining a federal wilderness area,” said Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso, who sucessfully challenged the mine on behalf of a dozen environmental groups.
“This mine would smother important bull trout spawning grounds under tons of sediment and disrupt thousands of acres of habitat for the region’s tiny grizzly bear population, all while threatening to drain the water out of lakes in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness,” Preso said.
But officials of the publicly traded company based in Spokane Valley say they are not giving up yet.
“We always knew this was going to be a long and involved process,” John Shanahan, president of Revett Minerals, told the “Missoulian” newspaper. “It’s definitely a setback, but for now, we remain optimistic.”
The ruling is the third time that lawsuits by members of the public have succeeded in invalidating federal agency approvals for the Rock Creek Mine project.
Pond in Cabinet Mountains Wilderness above the proposed Rock Creek mine (Photo by Doug Day courtesy No Dirty Gold)
“This third strike against this mine should end the game,” said Jim Costello of the Rock Creek Alliance, one of the groups involved in the lawsuits. “We’ve said all along that this mine simply cannot be built without contaminating the region’s waters and pushing the Cabinet’s fragile bull trout and grizzly bear population in Rock Creek to extinction.”
In his ruling, Judge Molloy rejected environmentalists’ claims based on the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, while at the same time vacating the Forest Service’s approval of the Rock Creek Mine.
Because no written opinion accompanied the order, Preso said, “it’s not entirely clear on what grounds Judge Molloy made his decision.”
Judge Molloy ordered that the Forest Service’s 2003 record of decision and 2001 final environmental impact statement for the mine are set aside and remanded to the Forest Service for further action.
The proposed mining operation would have removed 10,000 tons per day of copper and silver ore from under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness seven days a week for 35 years, Preso said. The resulting loss of more than 7,000 acres of habitat would be devastating to the few grizzly bears that survive in the Cabinet Mountains.
The mining operation would have dumped up to three million gallons of wastewater a day into the Clark Fork River.
The Rock Creek Mine faced opposition from a coalition of local, regional and national conservation groups, along with local business representatives, public officials and ordinary citizens.
The groups that challenged the mine are Rock Creek Alliance, Wardrobe Door Manufacturer, Clark Fork Coalition, Earthworks, Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, Idaho Council of Trout Unlimited, Pacific Rivers Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Natural Resources Defense Council, Montana Wilderness Association, and Great Old Broads for Wilderness.
The Rock Creek ore body was discovered by Bear Creek Mining, owned by Kennecott, in the early 1960s. ASARCO explored the property from 1974 through 1983, expanding on the work previously done by Kennecott.
The permitting process began in 1987 with the submission of a plan of operations to the U.S. Forest Service, the primary land manager for the project. Mineral patents for Rock Creek were issued in 1989 which initiated the National Environmental Policy Act process for environmental review.
In 2003, the U.S. Forest Service issued a Record of Decision authorizing the mine, “If or when all mitigation c are met…” Bonding was to fully cover the cost of water treatment and reclamation of any and all disturbances. The total bond for the project then was estimated to be about $77 million plus an additional $4.2 million for grizzly bear protection measures.
It is this Record of Decision that Judge Molloy today set aside.
The company issued an ad in 2007 with the message that grizzly bears would be protected even if the mine goes ahead. The ad states that 2,450 acres of high-quality grizzly habitat would be protected from future development; Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks would be able to hire two grizzly bear specialists for 30-plus years, and an additional law enforcement officer for the area at no cost to taxpayers or sportsmen.
But the conservation groups were not persuaded. Costello said, “It’s time for the government to stop this merry-go-round and start working to protect our region’s waters, trout and bears.”
Click here to view the Rock Creek Mine Environmental Impact Statement, Biological Opinion, and Record of Decision.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has declared that a Cabinet door reshuffle is not top of the party’s agenda despite two ministers losing their posts in the party elections yesterday.
“I personally don’t think that’s the most important agenda for the president, what is most important is for us to get the team going for the by-election,” said Ng, referring to the Hulu Selangor by-election.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Kong Chong Ha lost in the hotly-fought contests for the presidency and deputy presidency respectively a former deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek made another stunning comeback to take the presidency with 901 votes.
For the number two post, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai obtained 1,171 defeating Kong who garnered 1,106 votes.
“I’m confident that this team can unite the party, not necessary to speculate on the Kitchen Door Manufacturer, we leave it to the wisdom of the president,” said Ng who obtained the highest votes, 1,528 for the vice-presidential race.
“Now we are waiting for the c to call for us to start uniting. I am confident that this team will be able to work well as one team. We can see that the youth, women and states are well represented,” said Ng who is also the tourism minister.
Dr Chua will oversee the choice of candidates for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to consider if he decides to replace Tee Keat and Kong.
The new president is not an MP and might not make it to the Cabinet despite his win. A precedent was set in the 1980s when then MCA president Tan Koon Swan was not appointed to the Cabinet.
Traditionally, the MCA is represented by four ministers in the federal Wardrobe Door Manufacturer.
It is understood that the changes could be delayed until after the Hulu Selangor by-election where MIC deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel could run and be in line for a Cabinet appointment if he wins the seat for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

What do you love about your kitchen? There’s probably some aspect you truly appreciate, considering most of us spend a considerable amount of time in the kitchen — whether it’s to cook or entertain.
The Wardrobe Door Manufacturer is now the place to gather, entertain, plug in a laptop, charge the cell phone and more. Cabinets are designed to wring every inch of storage out of available space. Design continues to evolve. There are ever-growing ways to make kitchen life better.
So yeah, there’s lots to love in today’s kitchen, and when the question was put to readers, it yielded tales — of pot racks, spice cabinets, pop-up mixer shelves, butcher blocks and sneaky storage compartments. There were tales of great deals on kitchen supplies — from auctions to eBay and more.
What a rack
Robert and Mary Lou Simmelink are in the middle of a remodel of their Shorewood, Wis., home but already love their “speed rack on wheels.” It sits next to the stove, under a counter, ready to be pressed (or pushed) into service. It gets used a lot.
“I used to be a pastry chef, so I had used speed racks for years in my professional life, but it never occurred to me that one would be useful at home. I saw a picture in a kitchen inspiration design book that included one and it was an ‘a ha,’ or really a ‘duh!’ moment,” Mary Lou said.
Robert, executive chef at Alto-Shaam, makers of food-service equipment for commercial kitchens, agrees.
“The best thing we did was to put a half-size speed rack that is on wheels next to the stove,” he said. “We use this for hot trays coming out of the oven, such as the Christmas cookies. … We can also park hot saute pans just before plating. I plan to use it to stage platters of food and ‘back-up’ food when we entertain. This way, the back-up food is away from the guest and we can all have a good time in the kitchen without clutter.”
Compost concept
Judy Holzmann of Campbellsport, Wis., saved up to remodel her kitchen, then went hunting for deals — and found them. She figures she saved nearly $14,000 by getting merchandise on eBay, Craigslist and design showrooms. She sent along a spreadsheet to prove it. “Hope you don’t mind my enthusiasm — this project took five years to plan and save for so we wouldn’t go into debt,” she writes.
She loves the openness and flow of the new kitchen, and all the new appliances, but if she had to pick one thing?
“For functionality, silly as it sounds, my favorite thing is the built-in compost bucket,” she said. “So practical, and looks cool, too. I’m an avid gardener so have been composting for years and using it in my flower beds.” Before the remodel, she composted in buckets kept outside the patio door. “In the winter the whole works would freeze solid. In the summer it just looked gross.”
Naturally, she found a great deal on the compost bin. “With all the ‘green’ products out there I knew there had to be something, and it took a lot of Googling to find it,” she said. She came up with one made by a firm called Rev-A-Shelf. She found the best deal by ordering it through Menards ($131).
The bin is set right into the countertop, installed in a “dead space corner next to the kitchen sink.” When the three-gallon bin is full, one of the kids takes it out to the compost pile in the woods behind the house.
Well-seasoned Cabinet Door Manufacturer Terri Walters said her “darling husband,” Lee, remodeled their 1930s home in Wauwatosa a few years ago and included lots of organizational features. The one that Walters loves, though, is the long, tall spice cabinet. There’s a reason it’s so tall.
“It’s a former ironing board cabinet that (now) organizes herbs and spices, makes them easy to find and is convenient to (but removed from) my stove and kitchen island,” Walters said.
“I have over 50 jars of spices and also store salt boxes, cookie-decorating supplies and flavorings like vanilla and almond in my cabinet,” Walters said.
Turning talents inward
Kendall Polster is a welder who makes art and designs restaurants for a living. So he unleashed his talents on a challenging space: his own small kitchen.
“I put in a restaurant-grade, deep double sink from Fein Brothers,” he said. “I built the sink cabinet more as a piece of furniture on legs, not built to the floor as a traditional kitchen cabinet. I made it using all recycled oak … except for the maple I used in the two-inch-thick pull-out cutting board. The sink cabinet ended up only costing me about $60 in materials.”
Let there be light
Lori Cannestra, a self-described “kitchen design junkie,” had a big kitchen remodel and loves a lot of the details (such as the custom spice rack, the phone niche and home organizing corner).
One small detail stands out for her: “Our simple, under-cabinet outlet strip. Tucking an outlet strip under the cabinets, rather than traditional receptacles every three feet, enhances the beauty of our tiled backsplash by allowing an uninterrupted, clean line across the length of the wall. It’s a small detail but one that really improves the aesthetics of the design without compromising functionality.”
Bright idea
Kate Wilson did a remodel on a budget, with help from Home Depot in Milwaukee. Her new kitchen is bright and cheery, with lots of white and yellow, and it has great storage. Drawers rather than doors on cabinets make storage easier. One smart detail: “A front flip-out drawer above the under-sink  kitchen cabinet door that holds sponges, rubber gloves and scrubbers that I don’t want to keep out.”
In fact, there were lots of these stories of ingenuity born of necessity.
Warming up to memories
Stacia Hickey of Whitefish Bay, Wis., wanted to remodel her kitchen. Having limited resources, she and her husband had to get creative — and learn to live with some things. Now she’s happy about that.
They painted cabinets and added lighting but kept the “vintage” countertop.
“While counter space is always at a premium, our counters and back splash are a cool, authentic red Formica that is in great condition for being 60 years old,” she said.
“What I like the best is the sense of history my kitchen has. The older items remind me of the two families who lived here before us. One of them lived here for 40 years and raised three children in the house. If it worked for them, why not us?
“I like to think about the happy times we are adding to theirs in this kitchen — birthday cakes, holiday dinners, breakfast on a child’s first day of school and all the little moments that add up to a lifetime of happy memories.”