‘Recent phenomenon’: Albanese doubles down on cuts to crossbench staff numbers | katinacurtis
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it isn’t fair crossbench politicians want twice as many staff as government backbenchers, especially at a time when other areas of the public service have suffered cuts, leading to blowouts in passport, Centrelink and visa processing times.
Albanese said he did not buy the argument that independents and minor party MPs had to do more work than government or opposition politicians.“What concerns me is that the Morrison government, at the same time as they were cutting Centrelink staff, people can’t get passports, visas can’t get processed – the only area of public service that saw an increase in staffing levels appears to have been parliamentary staff.
“It’s up to the member or senator to determine how they use their staff. But staff attached to that person have to do a range of work and they work hard,” she said.