Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine a world where Apple get to decide the resources for their biggest competitors, Samsung, Google and Microsoft—how many staff they have, how much money they get and what materials they have access to. Apple would make sure that they get the best deal out of that and that Samsung, Google and Microsoft get a pretty rough deal so they can't compete on the same level as Apple anymore.

That's what's happening here in parliament. The Prime Minister gets to decides how many staff everyone gets. He gets to decide for himself, the opposition and Independents. Eighteen months ago I warned this power could be used for political gain. Fresh off an election, we've seen the Prime Minister treating staff resources like a bag of lollies in the playground. Take a look at the crossbench: some senators get two lollies; some senators even get three. If you've been a bit difficult to work with you only get one lolly, and Senator Payman, who famously quit the Labor Party, gets none. If that's not a blatant misuse of this power, I don't know what is. I raised my concerns in this chamber. Labor just said, 'This is how things have always been done.' It's like when a kid realises they're in trouble and quickly goes, 'It wasn't my fault.'

This power to set staffing numbers needs to sit with an independent body. That way, there are no political agendas involved. Everyone gets the staff they need to do their job for the people they represent. We don't trust politicians to set their own pay; that's why we have the Remuneration Tribunal. So why wouldn't they do staffing allocations, too?

For a party that's all about working together, Labor sure has a strange way of showing it. The Prime Minister wants to bring decency back to politics. Fixing this tired old rule that's stopping politicians from doing the job they're elected to do would be a really great start.