This is what happens when you start dabbling in the black arts of 'administrative review' :
Her special powers have cost (Port Philip Bay ratepayers) upwards of $800,000: $600,000 for overseeing a controversial review of the council administration, and close to another $200,000 on the legal drama that flowed from it. The bill is rising.
Four years after Ms Shahbaz was commissioned to weave a spell of success over it, Port Phillip is on its knees, senior staff say.
Her qualifications and experience include a masters of psychology at La Trobe University, a course with the astrologist Stella Starwoman and excursions to ashrams in India.
"I have a vast, vast array of interests," she says, spelling out her suitability for the job to The Age. "I'm a student of, you know, what life is."
Yeah, most living people are students of, you know, life, and living. But how do you convince a council's chief executive to hand over half a million dollars so you can cause absolute chaos?
That's obviously the real majik.
