‘Acting like a medieval king': PM faces multiparty push on staffing

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

Every MP is also allocated five electoral staff, who typically deal with constituency matters, media and stakeholders rather than legislation. The government gave every MP an extra electoral staffer in the previous parliament.
The Coalition joined the outcry over staffing allocation independence – long made by others in the parliament, including crossbenchers Lidia Thorpe, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, who avoided cuts this time – when its own allocations were slashed last month.
A government spokesperson said Labor had also had its staff reduced this term, though they did not say by how many. 'At the start of this parliamentary term, personal staffing allocations have been reduced for the government, opposition and the Greens,' they said.
The government has previously said the opposition has little right to criticise Albanese's decision to cut its staff because it had planned to cut public service jobs if it won.
Staffing for the opposition is typically set relative to the government, which would have given it more staff between fewer MPs because Labor won so many seats at the election.
Australia's Voice senator Fatima Payman, who defected from Labor last term, said she was the only senator without personal staff, despite repeated requests to the prime minister for more resources.
Payman attempted to establish an inquiry into staffing on Thursday – a move she said had broad support including through 'a very unlikely alliance' with One Nation, whose staff remained the same despite adding two more senators – into how the prime minister decided to allocate staff, but it failed at the last moment, 34 votes to 29.
'An hour before I got onto my feet, my team received notice that the Greens won't be backing it,' she said. 'Now it begs the question, what kind of dirty deal was made that they pulled out last minute?
'[The Greens] talk a big game on transparency and integrity, and this is when it mattered most because we would have been able to investigate what's really going on, and you back down. Why?'
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said her party was waiting for an independent review of MP staffing from the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service before considering alternative interventions.
The review will examine parliamentary workloads and make recommendations on broad resourcing allocations and support services for offices.
'Australians want politicians to focus on the issues impacting the community, not on ourselves or the trimmings of elected office,' Hanson-Young said.
The 2021 Jenkins review into parliament's toxic culture found stressed and overworked employees were a risk factor for inappropriate behaviour and a negative work environment.
Payman said she did not have the resources to represent such a large state on every issue, her staff were working 15- to 16-hour days, and they weren't paid appropriately.