Hay, there's still hope for Brown

The political rehabilitation of the Wollongong MP Noreen Hay, following her appearance in the sex-for-development scandal that engulfed Wollongong Council last year, appears to have begun in earnest. At a meeting at Parliament House yesterday, the woman who was accused of, but denied, being former police minister Matt Brown's dirty dancing partner at his infamous budget night party, was made chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management (Climate Change). The position attracts a nice little annual payment of more than $17,000. The position attracts a nice little annual payment of more than $17,000. Not everyone is pleased with the promotion, however, including fellow committee member and independent MP for Lake Macquarie Greg Piper, who said "to import a member who hasn't been on the committee and give them a chairmanship' raised questions 'about what these committees are being used for". Hay, who did not return The Diary's call yesterday, was stood down as parliamentary secretary for health by the former NSW premier Morris Iemma after her involvement with the developer Frank Vellar was revealed at the Independent Commission Against Corruption's inquiry into Wollongong Council. She was reinstated after being cleared of wrongdoing, but Nathan Rees dismissed her from the position when he became Premier.