One Nation has threatened to block all legislation in South Australia until it is granted additional staff resources, escalating a dispute over parliamentary staffing allocations. State leader Cory Bernardi issued the ultimatum on Tuesday, following weeks of complaints from the party's federal members in Canberra, including Pauline Hanson, about insufficient staff numbers.
Staff Allocation Disparities
Bernardi claimed that One Nation was allocated only 2.6 full-time equivalent staff for its four members in the lower house and three in the upper house. In contrast, the Greens received 3.6 full-time staff for their two upper house members. 'One Nation has been denied the same political resources made available to the Greens. It has been denied similar resources provided to the Liberal Party, and you have to ask why,' Bernardi told reporters. 'There is no justification for it, and the message is very clear: we will not support one scrap of legislation by this government until the playing field is level.'
South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher countered that One Nation already has more staff than the Greens. He explained that the standard allocation is 2.6 staff for each lower house MP and 1.6 for each upper house senator, with additional staff assigned on a 'case-by-case basis' to help members manage the legislative workload from the government and opposition. Maher stated that SA One Nation had been allocated seven extra staff, while only four extra were assigned to the Greens. 'If they do not want to have emergency measures possible for the state during a fuel crisis and they vote against it because they are not getting the perks they want, I think South Australians will judge that accordingly,' he said.
Political Implications
Currently, the Labor government requires two crossbench votes to pass bills in the SA upper house. The crossbench consists of three One Nation representatives, two Greens, and Fair Go's Sarah Game. Bernardi dismissed concerns about Labor's legislative struggles, stating, 'That is their problem, not my problem. They are playing petty politics, just like they always do, never missing an opportunity to stick it to their opponents. When they come begging and screaming for us to support one of their schemes, there will be a long conversation.'
Federal Context
Bernardi's threat comes two weeks after federal One Nation leader Pauline Hanson accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of driving her staff to exhaustion by refusing to allocate more workers. 'The Australian people's personal struggles are worse than ever – my staff have had to talk people down from the edge of taking their own lives,' Hanson said. She claimed the understaffing was an attempt by Albanese to undermine political opponents. 'I am the leader of a political party polling more than major parties. The government has failed to staff One Nation anywhere close to a functional level. This is pure bloody-minded politics by the Labor Party,' she added. Hanson said she had approached both the Prime Minister and Special Minister of State Don Farrell repeatedly since staff cuts were implemented.
A review released in August found that staffing levels overall were not adequate to meet parliamentary and electorate work demands, citing high workloads driven by constituent expectations and the 24-hour news cycle. Hanson claimed one of her staff personally wrote to Albanese requesting more workers, but 'Labor has not even responded and could not care less.' One Nation stated it has five electorate officers, the standard allocation for each MP, while Hanson has two parliamentary advisers compared to Greens leader Larissa Waters' 15 and Albanese's 59.
