The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, offered the One Nation MP David Farley an additional staff member in what the party has called an “unsolicited” move, made in an attempt to win over the new politician using taxpayer funds. In a statement posted on social media, Pauline Hanson claimed the move, which would cost taxpayers as much as $200,000 in additional salary, was an attempt to “exert undue political influence” over politicians. She said the offer was received outside an existing request by One Nation for additional staffers.
No reason was provided by the prime minister for the provision of this staff,” Hanson said. The pair had also met privately over the past few weeks in meetings initiated by the prime minister, the statement added. A letter authorising the MP for the New South Wales electorate of Farrer to hire another staff member was hand-delivered to Farley’s Parliament House office in Canberra on Monday by a member of the prime minister’s team, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. e was concerned Albanese was “seeking to use taxpayer funds to exert undue political influence over politicians”.
The prime minister has refused to respond to these calls.” Farley, who rejected the “unsolicited” offer for an additional staffer, did not definitively rule out joining Labor. I have got a very, very clear and defined mandate.” Albanese was asked about staffing allocations on Thursday morning, including calls by the former Labor senator Fatima Payman for more funding. He said Payman, who sits as an independent, had one more staff member than before she quit Labor to move to the crossbench.
Albanese did not answer questions about whether it was appropriate for the prime minister to be in charge of taxpayer-funded staffing allocations for MPs across parliament. Hanson stood alongside independents Dai Le and Payman last month to demand consistent staffing resources.
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