Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment (Providing Certainty and Improving Integrity) Bill 2025 exists for one reason and one reason only: the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, has used parliamentary staffing as a political weapon. The Australian Senate has an opportunity to stop the Prime Minister of Australia from starving the parliament of scrutiny, because that is exactly what he has done.

The Australian people don't often actually know what goes on in this place, so it's up to us, as senators on the non-government side, to make sure they are aware on a daily basis of what the Albanese government is doing to undermine democracy. When you undermine democracy, you undermine the very fundamentals that the Australian people live and breathe on a daily basis. What Mr Albanese doesn't understand is this: parliament isn't the Prime Minister's private office; it is the people's house. Those who are not on the government benches have an obligation to the Australian people to ensure that the actions of the government are properly scrutinised.

Let us be very, very clear: Mr Albanese has treated parliamentary staffing like a political weapon. All this bill does—it's a very simple bill, and that's why anybody on the non-government benches should be supporting it—is take that weapon out of the Prime Minister's hands. He's got to realise that cutting opposition staff doesn't save money. It's a great catchcry, though. What it does, though, is this: quite deliberately it buys less scrutiny of the government by the non-government parties on behalf of the Australian people. Quite frankly, those who are not in government need to ensure that the Australian people are served and are served well.

All we are doing with this bill is putting a minimum floor—that's it—under staffing so that the Prime Minister cannot starve the parliament of the resources that it needs to properly hold him, his ministers and his government to account. This has got nothing to do with entitlements at all. This is all about democracy, the undermining of democracy by the Albanese Labor government, and, more than that, this is about integrity. Strong governments not only withstand strong scrutiny; they welcome scrutiny, because they are so committed to the decision that they are making that they are prepared to have that decision scrutinised. Well, not this government.

Quite frankly, the Australian people need to understand what has happened to the Australian parliament since May 2022. This place has become a shop floor. Quite frankly, the non-government side is resembling the textile union. The textile union is bullied by the construction union, which is now the government. The way you silence democracy is to make it look all pretty on the outside so that the Australian people believe their parliament is functioning. Well, guess what, Australia? This government is undermining democracy. There is next to no scrutiny left in this place, let me assure you, courtesy of the Albanese government teaming up with the Greens to make as many changes as they can to ensure that scrutiny does not occur. This place, quite frankly, is now resembling the union movement.

You've got the big union—that is, the government—on one side, doing everything it can to silence the smaller union—that is, those on the non-government side. That is not healthy for democracy. But, my goodness, that is actually how the Australian parliament now functions. Why even bother calling us the Australian Senate? All we resemble now, going into the fourth year of a left-wing socialist government, is a shop floor. Any business out there that has dealt with a big union that seeks to bully, intimidate and silence knows exactly what I am talking about. This place is no longer the Australian Senate; this place is a shop floor. God help Australia when the big union, aka the Albanese government, is in control, silencing—and every day it gets a little bit worse—the smaller unions, which are now those of us on the non-government benches.

Labor will vote against the bill, don't worry about that, as will, unfortunately, the Australian Greens, but we'll get to them shortly. They've got a brand new party room, almost a million bucks worth, courtesy of the Australian people. They will do a deal. They will do a deal on anything. They will do a deal later today on an estimates schedule. They talk about transparency. They talk about more scrutiny of this government. They get offered something, and they backflip. You'll watch that today. Later on today, there will be a vote on adding a bit more scrutiny. We'll be supporting the very reasonable motion that Senator David Pocock is putting forward to ensure that the smaller union has an opportunity to scrutinise the bigger union on the shop floor. Let's watch the Australian Greens; let's see what they do. I can tell you right now that they won't be siding with us. They'll be siding with the big union in the Australian government.

Labor will vote against this bill. And why will they vote against this bill? Because they're voting to keep a system where the Prime Minister of the day decides who gets to scrutinise him and who doesn't. So the Australian people will ultimately be the ones who miss out. The way the current system works is that, under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984, the Prime Minister of the day holds the absolute discretion over who gets personal staff and who doesn't. Normally, the Prime Minister of the day, and even Labor prime ministers in time gone by, action on a convention to ensure that those on the non-government side—it doesn't matter if I like you or not; it doesn't matter if I agree with you or not—are adequately resourced so that they can properly scrutinise the decision of that government.

Let us be very, very clear about what has happened here. Mr Albanese, the Prime Minister of Australia—and I'm going to call him what he is, the head unionist—has abused that discretion. He has ripped up decades of convention, cutting opposition—it gets worse—and some crossbench capacity. If you're on the centre right—guess what?—you're actually targeted by the big union. If you're Senator Payman, God help you. You left the big union. You're actually worse off than the rest of us, because you're now a rat and they're out to get you.

They cut the staff of those they don't like. Obviously, they like the Australian Greens, and they do deals with them. The big union plus the Australian Greens equals the number in this place, and that will shortly get us onto an almost $1 million, brand-spanking-new, beautiful party room for the Australian Greens. Ironically, the poor journalist who took the photo has been locked out of this place for a week. They talk big on transparency. God help any journo, though, that goes in and tries to actually take a photo to show the evidence of the dirty deal that's been done between the Greens and the big union, the Albanese government, in relation to staffing, because they'll complain, and then you'll be banned from this place. Again, when you want to talk about the undermining of democracy, that is the undermining of democracy at its very best.

Mr Albanese has ripped up decades of convention, as I said, cutting opposition and some crossbench capacity, and as a result has deliberately weakened the parliament's ability to hold the left-wing, socialist Albanese government to account. This legislation doesn't just fix it for Mr Albanese; it fixes it for any government of any persuasion going forward. It's very simple. It restores balance, transparency and integrity to a system that the Prime Minister, Mr Albanese, has treated like a private fiefdom.

Let us be clear about the problem. Right now there are no minimum staffing levels for non-government parliamentarians. There is no transparent basis for how resources are distributed. There's no review and no appeal. The Prime Minister, as he has done, can reward his left-wing friends. He can punish his critics and even reduce an allocation to zero, as he has done, and there is no check or balance on that power. This isn't hypothetical. This is what occurred in 2022 and has again occurred in 2025. That, quite frankly, is not good enough.

This is a Prime Minister who, every day, when he stands up, talks a big game on openness and transparency, because that's exactly what you do when you're the big union. You present a facade to the world and you hope none of them come to the shop floor, the Australian Senate, to see what's actually going on—the silencing of democracy. He talks a big game on openness, but, when it comes to staffing, he shuts the books.

As I said, where are the Albanese government's little friends, their partners in crime, the Australian Greens? When this bill does come to a vote—it may not come to a vote today—let's see where they sit. When Senator Fatima Payman sought scrutiny of the Prime Minister's staffing decisions, the Australian Greens would not back her push for accountability. Worse, while others copped the cuts and delays, the Greens, as I said, have benefited from a newly constructed party room in Parliament House, reportedly costing around $886,000. Let's round it up to the nearest million.

What is worse is that they got angry when a photo was published of it. I thought we liked to talk about transparency in this place, because that's what happens every time the Greens stand up and every time the big union, Mr Albanese, stands up. Yet a journalist takes a photo, purely to show the Australian public—'There's a million bucks of your money well spent, or not, on the Australian Greens' new party room.' What happens to the journalist? He's banned from this place for a week. If you want to silence democracy, that is exactly how the big union does it when this place is treated like a shop floor.

That should tell the Australian public everything they need to know about the Australian Greens—special deals for themselves; silence on scrutiny for everyone else. The Greens were happy to find a budget for their new party room but not the courage—you can't put a price on courage—to actually back transparency. There are special deals for you, and you silence everyone else. When it came time to choose scrutiny or perks, what did the Australian Greens choose? Well, it's there for all to see—the photo was taken. They chose the furniture. Guess what? This bill will draw a line under that behaviour. All it does is place a floor of what staffing for non-government parliamentarians can fall to whilst at the same time—and this is important—preserving the government's overall control of staffing numbers and the Prime Minister's discretion above those minimums.

What this says to the Australian people is this: 'You win!' This is because it ensures that those who are not on the government benches and who are not part of the Australian Greens have the staffing and the resources required to properly scrutinise the government's decisions. Why does this matter? Because it's about a healthy democracy. That is what we are talking about now. This is a direct attack on democracy. My God, look at other countries in the world where they silence the opposition! That's where we're heading in Australia.

I don't call this the Australian Senate anymore, I call this a 'Shop floor'. This government behaves like the big union—aka, the construction union—and we on this side are the textile union, constantly crying out for a voice. Guess what, Australia? You're the textile union and you ain't got no voice under this Prime Minister! Seriously.

This shouldn't be a partisan question. It's a democratic one. And if you respect democracy, if you respect that people died for us for the freedoms that we have today so that we could be the great democratic nation that we are, I would have thought—ensuring that democracy is preserved and the basic accountabilities of a government are enforced—this would be an easy decision for you. This shouldn't be a partisan question. It's a democratic one.

Parliament is not Anthony Albanese's private office. It belongs to the Australian people. If you're afraid of the questions, fix your policy. Don't rig, as you have done, the staffing outcome. Support the bill, strengthen the parliament, support democracy and restore accountability. I hope that all of you, senators, have a look at the bill and understand that if you're backing democracy and the Australian people you'll support this bill. (Time expired)