Special Minister of State Mark Dreyfus has defended his decision to extend the termination payment for political staff by two weeks, describing it as ''appropriate'' and nothing to do with the upcoming federal election.
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Opposition Leader Tony Abbott slammed the government on Wednesday over the payments as being ''fast and loose with taxpayers money''.
In contrast, his frontbencher Bronwyn Bishop, who is shadow special minister of state, said the Coalition were not opposed to the practice.
Mr Dreyfus has sent a memo to all senators and MPs and their staff, announcing that if staff lose their jobs as the result of a federal election, they would get an additional paypacket. This would cover them for a total of four weeks.
Mr Dreyfus, who was appointed to the Special Minister of State role last month, said extra time was needed to allow staff to resettle after an election loss, where there is always a major changeover of staff.
There are currently around 550 staff employed across all offices.
''Two weeks had been found in practice, not to be long enough. You need the four weeks,'' he told Fairfax Radio.
''This is nothing to do with what is going to happen at the election.''
Prime Minister Julia Gillard dismissed the suggestion that the move was about shoring up the loyalty of Labor staff ahead of a likely election defeat, calling this ''newspaper spin''.
''This is a determination for all staff that work for politicians,'' she told ABC radio on Wednesday.
Mr Dreyfus said that there had already been 10 occasions since 2007 when staff had been given the four-week payout, including when the Howard government lost the election and former Greens leader Bob Brown retired.
He said on all these occasions it had been found ''appropriate'' to allow the extra time.
Mr Dreyfus said that in the event of a change of government, a new special minister of state needed to be appointed, the prime minister consulted and hundreds of people organised. ''It just takes time.''
The Attorney-General said that staff were on call 24/7 and had jobs that were ''nearly completely insecure''.
''These are people who can lose their jobs at the drop of a hat,'' he said.
Mr Abbott said the government was being ''fast and loose'' with taxpayers' money.
''This is a tax payer-funded handout to political staffers. Frankly it's just not on, it shouldn't be happening,'' he told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Mr Abbott said that the government was changing a discretionary payment to a rule.
''Mark Dreyfus, QC, should know better,'' he said. ''The fact is, this hasn't happened before. It's been rushed through by ministerial direction because Labor staffers want to secure a handout for themselves in the event of an election defeat.''
But a spokesman for Ms Bishop said that a four-week period for staffers had been done in the past.
''We're not opposed to it,'' he said.
He said Ms Bishop has had conversations with former special minister of state, Gary Gray - who initiated the extension - but had not discussed the matter with Mr Dreyfus.
With AAP
