Thread by @zalisteggall

🧵Statement on PM Albanese's proposal for drastic crossbench staff cuts👇
#auspol

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shown a damning display of poor judgement today with his drastic proposal that personal staff for crossbenchers be cut from four to just one. 🧵>

It shows the Prime Minister has no respect or appreciation for the work the Crossbench members did in the 46th Parliament. Consistently, it was the crossbench that brought forward significant alternative policies and held the Government to account. 🧵>

It’s worth remembering the work on integrity and climate was done from the crossbench - it wasn’t done from the opposition. Personal staff played an enormous role in consulting on and drafting this important legislation. 🧵>

Cutting crossbench staff so drastically is ultimately an attempt to gag the crossbench and undermine their work. Such a move is disrespectful to the one in three Australians who voted for Independents and minor parties in this historic Federal election.🧵>

Is the PM ignoring the fact Labor has a slim majority in the House & no majority in the Senate? To so drastically cut staff would delay & compromise the course of legislation by leaving crossbench members without the resources to review & adequately assess legislation.🧵>

This proposal by the Prime Minister highlights the problem with our current system, demonstrating that an Independent MP’s staff is actually at the mercy of the PM of the day. This fact goes against the principles and recommendations of the Jenkins Review. 🧵>

Staffing questions should not be so arbitrary, it should be statutory. Following their Member’s re-election, personal staff should be in a position of feeling confident about their employment.🧵>

Re: electorate staff & personal staff, my electorate office staff deal with overwhelming caseloads. Personal staff like policy advisers, media advisers & chiefs of staff are utterly necessary to manage Parliamentary business & engage with the community, experts & stakeholders+🧵>

Unlike the major parties, crossbenchers have no “media units”, “policy units”, “tactics teams” or departments to support this work. There are simply not enough hours in the day to do the work required to serve the electorate without personal staff. 🧵>

Many would agree that this shouldn’t be at the whim of the Prime Minister, and staff should be properly calculated in order to allow Members to serve their electorates and accomplish the significant work in parliament involved in being a Federal representative. 🧵>

This proposal warns us that if crossbenchers are too critical of a Prime Minister, he or she can simply slash our staff allocation.🧵>

After all the talk of a renewed “respectful” and “collaborative” parliament, Prime Minister Albanese endangers his potentially productive relationships with the crossbenchers by proposing to limit their ability to represent their communities & hold the government to account. 🧵>

Much like the Coalition, @AlboMP 'put out the trash' on Friday afternoon, sending a letter asking crossbench members to sack 3 of 4 staff & then heading off to Europe on Sunday to avoid the music. It’s a bad start for the Prime Minister’s relationships in the 47th Parliament.