Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a short statement with your indulgence. I acknowledge the statement made by the Special Minister of State and I thank him for doing me the courtesy of telling me he intended to make the statement. I said to him at that time, and I repeat it to the whole House, that in December 2007 the then Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, wrote:

In a departure from past practice, I have decided that staffing for whips will not be included in calculating the government and opposition allocation totals.

He went on to say that two clerical staff have been allocated to the opposition whips in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The effect of that was that the two National Party whips positions were terminated. The practical effect was that Miss Gerrie van Dam, who had been working in that position for over 30 years, in both government and opposition, was not able to continue. The second Nationals whip position was actually created by the Labor government when the Main Committee was established. So the changes announced by Mr Rudd did have the effect of eliminating the two Nationals whips positions.

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