TOPIC 6.6: What is the role of political staffers?

Overview and Reflection

Discussion about modern government must logically include the role and growing size of the political staff who work for our elected representatives across our nine parliaments, be they backbenchers, government or shadow ministers. Generally speaking, elected representatives at local government level do not have political staffers and receive all their formal policy advice from council employees who would answer to the CEO of the council.

In the Australian Parliament for instance the numbers of political staffers have risen from none in 1940, for the then 75 MPs and 19 senators to 2020 people in 2021 for the now 151 MPs and 76 senators – that’s about nine staffers per politician (Madden, 2021).^[1] These staff are employed under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984, and while paid for by the Commonwealth Government, answer directly to the elected representative. Their duties range from ostensibly administrative, support and community liaison functions such as electorate officers, through to those in the offices of ministers and shadow ministers where they provide media, policy and ‘political’ advice. In 2021 the then government ministry had 464 full time equivalent personal employee positions; the Opposition 102, and the Australian Greens 18 (Madden 2021).

A similar situation exists across all the Australian parliaments and for example, the Minns Labor Government in NSW has 178 personal staff working for the ministry (NSW Cabinet Office, 2024).^[2] This later trend of growing independent policy advice for government ministers across all jurisdictions in the last two decades has introduced a different dynamic in the relationship between ministers, parliamentarians and public servants.

Popular television dramas such as the West Wing have placed much more attention on the behind-the-scenes roles played by this group of support players in the political scene. Generally, they remain behind the scenes but occasionally they are singled out for comment, sometimes with personal attacks. In 2014 for instance, Clive Palmer of the then Palmer United Party, during a parliamentary speech about the then Abbott government‘s proposed paid parental leave scheme attacked Abbott’s Chief of Staff, Peta Credlin (Bourke, 2014).^[3] In an egregious example Palmer said: “Why should Australian citizens and businesses be taxed, and working women discriminated against, just so that the prime minister’s chief of staff can receive a massive benefit when she gets pregnant?” (Hurst, 2014).^[4]

Staffers can also become subject, more legitimately, to areas of potential personal and professional conflict of interest claims and put themselves squarely in the public eye. In these cases, a combination of both legitimate and less legitimate questions are often asked as demonstrated by the Barnaby Joyce – Vicki Campion example. The article below by Yee-Fui Ng in the Conversation uses the Joyce – Campion situation for a discussion about the role and regulation of staffers in system of government.

Political staffers are often a position of extreme power imbalance, with tenuous employment arrangements, as they can be ‘let go’ fairly easily at the broad discretion of the elected representative, as well as in terms of their sometimes-limited career experience and status. The recent and still ongoing very high-profile Higgins allegations and the subsequent legal cases highlights the difficulties posed by their complex employment arrangements, which are not the same standards as found in the public services. The recent Jenkins Review^[5] provides a useful insight into their work environment and their thinking frame of reference which can be helpful for you as a public servant when engaging with them.

The phenomenal rise in personal assistants, particularly in the last 20 years, is in response to the increasing demands on politicians, both in terms of workload and the range and complexity of issues that constituents now expect their elected representatives to address. In 1940 Australia’s population was around 7.1m (note: these figures do not include many First Nations people because at the time they were excluded from the calculation of Estimated Population by the then Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics). (ABS, 1951, p. 521)^[6] and in 2024 surpassed 27m (ABS, 2024)^[7]. Federal MPs now represent around 180,000 people each compared to 95,000 in 1940. The massive migration program since WWII, bringing linguistically and ethnically diverse people, and the rise of multiple contentions socio-economic issues from Climate Change to Same Sex Marriage means elected representatives must now respond to more complex demands from the electorate.

Public servants across the jurisdictions do have contact with ministers and their staff. A survey of Commonwealth public servants in 2003 revealed that contact between APS employees and Ministers and their offices was very widespread.

The issue for you as a public servant is that you need to be able to be influential in a dispassionate manner while the trust and relationship between the politician and their personal staff will be quite strong. The age of the staffers and the level of experience they have to be able to offer credible advice are more recently raised.

The movement of staff, when the governing party changes, is often into the lobbying industry and into business with strong need for government links. These officers know how government works which makes it more demanding for a public servant to ensure the community’s interests are protected in the melee.