Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note that we are just about out of time and that the Minister for Human Services has arrived. I am sure we do not want to keep him waiting, but I would like to deal with one last matter before we move on. I wish to acknowledge that I am not sure who actually has responsibility for this, but I am interested in the staffing arrangements for parliamentary secretaries. In particular, I am interested in who approves the staffing arrangements for parliamentary secretaries—whether it is the Special Minister of State, the Minister for Finance and Administration or some other minister. To assist the minister, I am particularly interested in the staffing allocation for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and why the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs receives more staff than some government ministers and more staff than anybody on the opposition side other than the Leader of the Opposition himself. What process did the parliamentary secretary have to go through to justify his very significant level of staffing, to whom did he have to justify that—whether it was the minister at the table or some other minister—and what was the justification?

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