Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning, during the course of the debate on leave of absence for members, the Leader of the Nationals and member for Wide Bay claimed that the National Party whips in this place had no staff and that in fact this government had removed their entitlement to staff. As the Leader of the National Party is well aware, that statement is not true.

In contrast to the behaviour of the Howard government, who reduced opposition whip staffing from three to two in 2001, Labor governments have consistently increased the staffing entitlements of opposition whips over the last three years. There was an increase to four staff in 2007, to five in 2009 and to six following the 2010 election. These increases were done properly in recognition of the increased workload of whips in this place, particularly in the complex parliamentary environment we are experiencing. I also note that this staffing entitlement has been allocated to the Chief Opposition Whip, and it is up to the member for Leichhardt to determine how that staffing entitlement is further distributed amongst opposition whips. In other words, if the Leader of the Nationals has a gripe about staffing for his whip, he knows he should take that argument up with his coalition partners in the Liberal Party and he should not be falsely accusing the Gillard government of stripping staff entitlements from the National Party whip. Merry Christmas.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to 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.