One nation accuses trying to sway MP with staff offer
Nation leader Pauline Hanson accused Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of trying to exert political influence after his office offered MP David Farley…
CANBERRA — One Nation accuses trying to exert political influence after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office offered MP David Farley an additional staff member. The dispute puts taxpayer-funded parliamentary support and its allocation under scrutiny.
The offer could cost taxpayers as much as $200,000 in additional salary, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said. Farley rejected it.
Hanson said Farley had not requested the extra staff member and described the offer as unsolicited. In a statement posted on social media, she said it came separately from One Nation’s existing request for additional staff.
“David did not request this allocation of staff. No reason was provided by the prime minister for the provision of this staff,” Hanson said.
A letter authorising Farley to hire another staff member was hand-delivered to his Parliament House office in Canberra on Monday by a member of Albanese’s team, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Farley represents the New South Wales electorate of Farrer.
Staffing powers under scrutiny
Hanson accused Albanese of using public money to influence politicians. She said the prime minister and Farley had also met privately over the past few weeks, in meetings initiated by Albanese.
“We have decided to expose these grubby dealings because the public deserves to know what the Albanese Labor government is doing behind closed doors,” Hanson said.
One Nation has been seeking what Hanson called a fair and transparent system for allocating staff to parliamentarians. She said the prime minister had not responded to the party’s calls for an objective approach.
The dispute has a practical consequence beyond the exchange between the two politicians: how staffing resources are allocated affects the support available to MPs doing parliamentary work. Hanson’s objection is that the prime minister should not personally control resources that can go to political opponents.
“The prime minister should not personally control the resources available to his political opponents,” she said.
Hanson stood alongside independents Dai Le and Fatima Payman last month to call for consistent staffing resources. Payman, a former Labor senator who now sits as an independent, had called for more funding.
Asked about staffing allocations on Thursday morning, Albanese said Payman had one more staff member than before she left Labor for the crossbench. He did not answer questions about whether it was appropriate for the prime minister to oversee taxpayer-funded staffing allocations for MPs across parliament.
His office was contacted for comment.
Farley says he chose One Nation
Farley rejected the additional staff offer but did not definitively rule out joining Labor. Speaking to News24 on Thursday, he said he had chosen One Nation because he wanted political courage and tenacity in a party representing Farrer.
“I know that I’ve still got that courage and tenacity in behind me. I have got a very, very clear and defined mandate,” Farley said.
Hanson said she believed the staffing power had been used to an unprecedented extent under Albanese’s government. The potential cost of the extra position: as much as $200,000 in additional salary.
Source: theguardian.com
