COMMITTEES

Senator HANSON (Queensland—Leader of One Nation) (11:19): I move: At the end of the motion, add: "and, in respect of the Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment (Safe Staffing Guarantee) Bill 2026, the bill be referred immediately to the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 24 November 2026". What we have found in this parliament, under the current Labor government, is that the Prime Minister determines the staffing numbers for whichever political party or Independent, right across this whole chamber.

I think it's terribly wrong, what is happening here. The Prime Minister's office should not determine who gets staffing and how many staff they have. The number of personal advisers that One Nation has is five.

That's for six members of parliament. The Labor Party has 507. The Prime Minister personally has 59 staff.

If you look at the Liberal Party, Angus Taylor has 35 personal staff. If you look at Senator Payman—I'll speak on her behalf as well—she's got none. Why?

It's because she dared to walk away from the Labor Party. So those people who do not support the Labor Party are getting punished through not having the staffing. What we have requested is an inquiry into this.

Who's going to block it? The Liberal Party. The Liberal and National parties want to block this.

Why? Are we all treated fairly, across the range of political parties? No.

Basically, it is: 'Let's hurt the ones who do not support us. Let's hurt the ones who are not led like sheep in this place and who have a voice for the Australian people. Let's hurt them by denying them the staff that they need to run their offices.' It is quite clear.

What I find amazing is that, although the government has also damaged the coalition—a loss to their staff—the coalition says, 'We don't want to have an inquiry into this.' They're shutting down the inquiry. So it's the uniparty again. I want the public to know this.

It is the uniparty again colluding to cause as much damage as they can to the independent ones who were elected to the parliament. And I think it's wrong. There have been some comments, including from, just off the top of my head, Senator McGrath.

He said in a comment that it is 'vindictive'. Senator McGrath said that, but he's not standing up to support an inquiry. Isn't it funny!

You just say these things to suit you at the time, but, when push comes to shove as far as putting it to an inquiry, you don't want to. Why doesn't the Liberal Party want to put it before an inquiry? As far as I'm concerned, the Prime Minister should have no right to determine what staff levels are given out to crossbenchers or members of any party, whether they're in the lower house or the upper house.

If we have a separate board that determines the wages, then why don't we have a separate board that determines the staffing levels—right across the board—for future parliaments? That's where it's important. This is collusion by the major political parties now to do as much damage as they can to One Nation.

Do you know why? You're scared of the rise of One Nation. You think you've had this tied up your way for all this time, and you are now getting challenged—but not by One Nation.

You're being challenged by the people of this nation who are fed up with what you've been dishing out to them. They want change. They see that change with One Nation.

That's why we won seven seats in South Australia and why we won the seat of Farrer, previously held by the Liberals for 77 years. That's why we won Secret Harbour, held by the Labor Party since 1989. That's why we look like we're going to pick up some seats in Victoria, and Labor will be gone.

New South Wales—the same. And this is just a dirty trick again by the major political parties because of One Nation's rise. All I'm asking for is what is fair.

All I'm asking for is staff—two in my office; two advisers for a minor party. We are a parliamentary party. We are a parliamentary party, and you can't give us the number of staff that is equivalent.

The Labor Party have approximately 4.7. We have 0.83 per cent, the lowest in this chamber. All I want is fairness.