Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment (Providing Certainty and Improving Integrity)

The bill would amend the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984The Commonwealth law that provides for the employment of staff for parliamentarians and office-holders. to create statutory minimum staffing guarantees for non-government parliamentarians, rather than leaving those minimums entirely to executive discretion.

The Opposition would be entitled to at least 110 non-ministerial personal staffPersonal staff employed to support parliamentarians who are not ministers, separate from electorate office staff and ministerial staff., or 22 per cent of the total number of government staff, whichever was higher.

A non-government party with eight or more parliamentarians would be entitled to at least 25 non-ministerial personal staffPersonal staff employed to support parliamentarians who are not ministers, separate from electorate office staff and ministerial staff., or five per cent of the total number of government staff, whichever was higher.

An independent parliamentarian, or a parliamentarian in a minority party with fewer than eight parliamentarians, would be entitled to at least three non-ministerial personal staffPersonal staff employed to support parliamentarians who are not ministers, separate from electorate office staff and ministerial staff., including at least one Senior Adviser.

The Prime Minister could still make determinations that increased a non-government parliamentarian or group's staffing allocation, but any determination that reduced the bill's minimum entitlements would be void to that extent.

The bill would also limit office-holders from employing staff beyond their staffing allocation or Senior Adviser allocationThe number of positions within a staffing allocation that could be held at a Senior Adviser classification level., and would let the Leader of the Opposition or a qualifying minority-party leader decide how a group allocation was shared inside that group.

The explanatory memorandum says the bill responds to staffing cuts made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022 and later, which the sponsors argued weakened Parliament's practical capacity to scrutinise government.

The Senate agreed to a Greens second-reading amendmentA parliamentary amendment to the motion about whether a bill should be read a second time. It can add a statement or criticism without changing the bill text itself. calling for the government to work with all elected groups and individuals on a fair and independent personal-staff allocation model that reflected representation and addressed staff wellbeing and workload.

The amended second-reading motion was agreed, but the bill itself did not pass the Senate. The third-reading vote was defeated 29 votes to 32, and the APH bill page records the bill as not proceeding.