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Unbelievably, the federal parliament doesn’t allocate political staffers proportionally based on the number of seats held. As a result, we have a ridiculous situation whereby One Nation has been allocated only 0.83 staff per parliamentarian, far less than all other parties:
The Senate on Thursday voted down a One Nation attempt to advance an inquiry into staffing allocations, with Labor, Greens and Coalition Senators all opposing the inquiry. Other independent Senators David Pocock, Ralph Babet and Fatima Payman supported the inquiry.
The vote has reignited concerns about the Prime Minister’s power to determine the staffing resources available to his political opponents.
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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