Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has offered One Nation MP David Farley an extra staffer on a $200,000 salary package, in an unsolicited proposal the party has rejected as an attempt to use taxpayer money to win favour with the new MP.
A letter authorising Farley to hire an additional staff member was hand-delivered to the MP’s Parliament House office on Monday by a member of Albanese’s team. It was swiftly discarded, with Pauline Hanson saying she was concerned the prime minister was “seeking to use taxpayer funds to exert undue political influence over politicians”.
Under federal legislation, the prime minister has the power to decide how many staff members each MP gets beyond the five electorate officers afforded to every politician. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has repeatedly petitioned Albanese to let her hire five more staffers now that her party has achieved minor party status, following the defection of former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce last December.
Hanson has twice written to Albanese to request staffing equity with the Greens, which would increase One Nation’s allocation from four to nine and raise salaries so the party could attract more experienced staff. Her requests have not received a formal response.
“While this power has always been open to abuse, it has, in our view, been weaponised to an unprecedented extent under this Labor government and this prime minister,” Hanson told this masthead in a statement.
“This is the type of politics that Australians are sick of. The prime minister is trying to drag One Nation down to his level of grubby politics. One Nation will have no part of it.”
Albanese has been criticised for the way he grants extra hires following revelations in this masthead that he allowed Senator Tammy Tyrrell to retain additional staff when she joined Labor in May, and offered then-opposition leader Sussan Ley additional staff for support of the government’s attempt to change freedom of information laws.
Farley’s rejection of the offer comes a fortnight after Albanese wrote a letter guaranteeing 15 staff to the Greens three days before the party teamed up with Labor to reject an inquiry into his power to allocate staff.
The One Nation MP is currently the only member of the House of Representatives crossbench who does not have additional staff. Accepting the offer would have put Farley on equal footing with independents Nicolette Boele and Dai Le, One Nation colleague Barnaby Joyce, and Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown, who all have one additional staffer.
Farley entered federal politics after winning the Farrer byelection in May, triggered by the resignation of Ley. He is the first One Nation MP to win a House of Representatives seat at an election, but has on occasion diverged from Hanson’s positions on migration and displaying Aboriginal and Torres Strait flags.
In 2021, Farley sought to run for Labor under Albanese’s leadership, and personally donated to the party’s election fund. The MP is also a former member of the National Party.
The letter addressed to Farley was copied to Special Minister of State Don Farrell who on Wednesday rejected claims that Albanese had unfairly assigned staff, and said the prime minister was the most appropriate person to make such decisions citing historical precedent.
Albanese offered Farley an “adviser 3 (non-ministerial)” staffer, a position with a base salary of up to $160,043, plus an additional “personal staff allowance” of up to $35,387.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to questions about why the staff member was allocated or whether Farley had ever discussed staffing with Albanese.
In a separate letter sent to the prime minister and seen by this masthead, Farley rejected the allocation pending broader negotiations between One Nation and the prime minister’s office.
One Nation said Farley had also been approached by senior ministers regarding grants for his electorate.
Dr Catherine Williams, executive director of the Centre for Public Integrity, said the government “urgently” need to “explain the rational that has been used to determine current staffing allocations”.
“The system which sees the prime minister able to determine staffing allocations is deeply and inherently problematic, untenable, and must be overhauled,” Williams said.
Immediately after Labor won government in 2022, Albanese cut staffing levels to the expanded crossbench, saying the bloc had swelled to a historic size, and then backtracked. Albanese also cut the Coalition’s staffing following the 2025 election, citing their significant loss of seats.
Hanson and independent senator Fatima Payman – traditionally political enemies – stood side by side last month to demand a change to the system. Joined by independent MP Dai Le, the trio said they were unable to effectively carry out their duties with understaffed offices.
On Thursday, Albanese told journalists that Payman, who claims she is being punished for quitting Labor, has been given one more staffer.
“Fatima Payman has the same numbers of staff now as she had when she was elected as a Labor senator, indeed one more, because we granted an additional staffer to all senators and all members of the House of Representatives.”
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Nick Newlingis a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect viaXoremail.
