Who gets the staff? Parliament’s adviser allocations back in the spotlight

Finance figures show wide differences in personal staffing across government, opposition and the crossbench, renewing scrutiny of a system in which the Prime Minister determines allocations.

Pauline Hanson has reopened a long-running argument over the distribution of taxpayer-funded personal staff across federal Parliament, arguing One Nation receives substantially fewer positions per parliamentarian than several other political groups.

Figures circulated by the One Nation leader, drawn from personal employee position data tabled by the Department of Finance as at 1 May 2026, put the Government at 507 personal staff positions for 124 Labor parliamentarians, or 4.09 positions for each elected member.