Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has given each non-ministerial member of the ACT Assembly another $70,000 to spend on staff, with $100,000 extra for Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson.
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The measure, costing $800,000 a year, is a surprise inclusion in the ACT budget delivered this week, and went unannounced by Ms Gallagher or her government.
Asked about the extra money, Ms Gallagher's spokeswoman said it was in recognition of the "extra workload" and in the lead up to the increase in the size of the Assembly at the next election.
The budget also contained another $660,000 to cover the costs of a sixth minister. Ms Gallagher is expected to promote one of the four Labor backbenchers to her ministry, swelling its numbers from five to six, at the end of June.
Of the new staff funding, Mr Hanson gets $100,000 a year extra to spend on staff, and the other the seven Liberals $70,000 each. The three remaining Labor backbenchers will also get $70,000 a year for another staff member (or more, if they employ at lower rates, or part time).
The extra staff money begins in January and continues to the next election. It is a substantial increase to the staff budget for Assembly members. At the moment, ordinary members get $160,700 to employ staff with a little more to the deputy leader of the Opposition and $492,000 for the leader of the Opposition. The extra money will bring the amount for ordinary members to $230,700 and for Mr Hanson to almost $600,000.
Mr Hanson supported the change, which he said was "pretty moderate", and had come after a discussion between him and Ms Gallagher.
"What it's about trying is to make the Assembly work properly and it's been identified in a pretty bipartisan fashion that the Assembly has got some resourcing issues," he said.
At the moment the staff budget only covered about two advisers each for most backbench and opposition members, who were stretched with electorate responsibilities, as well as committee memberships and in the case of the Liberals shadow portfolio responsibilities. More staff would allow them to do their job more efficiently and effectively, he said.
Ms Gallagher's office provided no more clarification of the reason for the increase. It is not clear how the staffing increase relates to how a staffing increase now relates to the planned increase from 17 to 25 Assembly members at the next election. But perhaps a gradual increase in the staff budget is more palatable for the public than the big jump that will need to come with eight extra Assembly members.
