Within the early debates of the 48th Parliament in Australia, the longstanding method of allocating federal parliamentarians’ staffing resources has been a high-profile and contentious issue. This policy brief investigates the methods used in similar Westminster parliaments (the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and New Zealand), with a view to helping inform future debate within the Australian context.

Key points

• The analysis demonstrates there is no standard convention across Westminster parliaments for staffing allocations.
• Compared with the UK, Canada and New Zealand, Australia is unique in having Prime Ministerial discretion over all parliamentarians’ staffing decisions.
• These other Westminster parliaments predominantly use parliamentary processes to direct non-ministerial staffing allocations, either through committees or the Speaker’s office.
• Across the range of decision-making mechanisms, the UK’s Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority stands alone as being outside both the executive and parliament.