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

Imagine a bakery owner in Tasmania, like that of Scottsdale Cottage Bakery or of the internationally renowned Ross Village Bakery. They've worked hard their whole lives to get where they are, to be able to buy a shop or to start their own. Then along comes another shop owner who says, 'You can only bake this many scallop pies, you can only serve this many customers and you can only employ so many bakers.' Coming from a government that constantly tells Australians that it is about creating jobs and growing the economy, that would be absurd and a little bit rich.

If the Prime Minister walked into a bakery in Camperdown or even in Darlinghurst, or in his own electorate, and told them how to run their shop, there would be outrage. They would tell him to get stuffed. And yet that is precisely what happens here in this parliament. Right now, the total number of staff senators can employ is not determined independently or through fair and open processes but at the direct discretion of the Prime Minister himself. The Prime Minister is not just the biggest baker in town; he is the one telling his competition how to run their business, how many scallop pies to bake and how many staff they're allowed to employ.

Senators, like bakery owners, work hard to represent their communities. They should not have their staffing levels decided by one person's decision. The Prime Minister must finally relinquish his pastry-crushing grasp on the scallop pie of staffing allocations, and instead hand this decision to the independent umpire, the Remuneration Tribunal, where it belongs. Aussies deserve representatives who are properly supported, and senators deserve a workplace where the number of hands in the kitchen is not decided by one man at the top of the table.