Chief Minister Andrew Barr has signed off on a significantly increased staff allocation for Assembly members, a funding hike that will allow each of them to employ an extra staff member.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Barr has also reinstated the position of "executive chief of staff" in his office, with a salary package of $250,000.
The lion's share of the increase in money for employing staff goes to the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Hanson, who gets about $600,000 a year, a big increase on the $492,000 he has got to date.
Most of the other Liberals and the Labor backbenchers get $230,000, an increase of about $70,000.
All up, the 11 Liberals and Labor backbenchers will spend almost $3 million on staff this year. The government does not divulge how much it gives the six ministers to pay their staff, but the overall budget for minister and staff salaries is $5.85 million this year. Deducting salaries of ministers from that leaves about $4.4 million for staff. There are 43 staff among the six ministers.
The increases in non-ministerial staff were budgeted in the June and detailed in a determination made by Mr Barr just before Christmas.
In June, Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson described the increases as "pretty moderate". Then chief minister Katy Gallagher 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 Assembly will swell by an extra eight politicians next year when numbers increase from 17 to 25, with staff costs set to rise by at least $2 million more.
Staff is just one of the costs of the bigger Assembly, with officials also grappling with where to house the extra politicians. Neither Speaker Vicki Dunne nor Mr Barr would speak on the subject, but they are believed to be considering options that involve moving politicians or administrative staff out of the main Assembly building on London Circuit.
Either group could be moved to the first floor of the sister building that houses the Canberra Museum and Gallery, or to one of the public service buildings nearby.
A third option is to move all the politicians into new electorate offices, providing smaller offices in the Assembly building for sitting days.
But all of the options come with a hefty price tag. If the Assembly building is refurbished in any significant way (an upgrade of more than 50 per cent of the building), it will have to be brought up to modern building standards, which looks to be an expensive exercise. None of the windows, for example, are double glazed, and heating and cooling systems are 20 years old.
The Assembly building was built in the early 1960s and completed in the 1970s. It was refurbished in 1993 and 1994 to accommodate the Assembly.
Decisions must be made in the coming weeks so money can be made available in the next budget.
