Under federal legislation, the prime minister has the power to decide how many staff members each MP gets beyond the five electorate officers afforded to every politician. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has repeatedly petitioned Albanese to let her hire five more staffers now that her party has achieved minor party status, following the defection of former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce last December.

Hanson has twice written to Albanese to request staffing equity with the Greens, which would increase One Nation’s allocation from four to nine and raise salaries so the party could attract more experienced staff. Her requests have not received a formal response.

“While this power has always been open to abuse, it has, in our view, been weaponised to an unprecedented extent under this Labor government and this prime minister,” Hanson told this masthead in a statement.

“This is the type of politics that Australians are sick of. The prime minister is trying to drag One Nation down to his level of grubby politics. One Nation will have no part of it.”

Albanese has been criticised for the way he grants extra hires following revelations in this masthead that he allowed Senator Tammy Tyrrell to retain additional staff when she joined Labor in May, and offered then-opposition leader Sussan Ley additional staff for support of the government’s attempt to change freedom of information laws.

Farley’s rejection of the offer comes a fortnight after Albanese wrote a letter guaranteeing 15 staff to the Greens three days before the party teamed up with Labor to reject an inquiry into his power to allocate staff.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-offered-one-nation-mp-an-extra-staffer-hanson-says-it-s-an-attempt-at-undue-influence-20261029-p619rx.html

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