Numbers of Ministerial Staff in Australia – As at April 2018

Numbers of Ministerial staff drawn from the most recent, most authoritative source publicly available

Numbers reflect what is reported as ministerial staff in each jurisdiction: so if personal support staff, such as administrative assistants or drivers, have been reported, these are included in the figures).

• Number of Ministers and Office Holders are those numbers reported against staff numbers, where available.
• Victoria does not have a regular reporting regime for ministerial staff numbers, so I’m still reliant on the numbers in a 2015 FOI return
• NSW last reported its figures in June 2017, failing to report the figures at 30 December 2017.
• Northern Territory has a global budget for Executive Support, with 295 employees, but does not have a breakdown to the numbers of personal staff provided to support Ministers.
• Shout out to Tasmania, which provides staffing numbers regularly and in the clearest format.

Commonwealth: 30 Ministers, 12 Assistant Ministers (Parliamentary Secretaries) and 3 senior office holders (Whip and two Chairs)

447  (As at 1 February 2018 – Tabled Schedule at Finance Estimates) (425 at 1 April 2016 – Tabled Schedule at Finance Estimates)

Number in Prime Minister’s Office – 54 (53 in 2016); Deputy Prime Minister – 19 (19 in 2016)

New South Wales: 23 Ministers

203.4 (As at 30 June 2017)  (204.9 at 30 June 2016)

Number in Premier’s Office – 27.8 (27.9 in 2016); Deputy Premier’s Office – 14 (13 in 2016).

Victoria: 21 Ministers

258 (As reported by the Herald Sun, based on an FOI application, at 3 December 2015)

Number in Premier’s Office: “One in five of the 236 ministerial staff and 22 ministerial drivers works directly for Daniel Andrews.”

Queensland: 17 Ministers

210 positions (As at December 2017) (203 Positions at 31 March 2016 )

Number in Premier’s Office – 35 (35 in 2016); Deputy Premier’s Office – 19 (16 in 2016)

South Australia: 14 Ministers

101.7 (As at 22 June 2017) (99.4 FTE at 12 November 2015)

Number in Premier’s Office – 43.1 (40 in 2015); Deputy Premier’s Office – 5.8 (5 in 2015)

The South Australian numbers might be treated with some scepticism given media reports of FOI applications revealing 284 staff in 2015)

Western Australia: 17 Ministers

219.3 (As at 30 November 2017) (216.5 at 21 April 2016)

Number in Premier’s Office – 20.8 (24.5 in 2016); Deputy Premier’s Office – 14 (14 in 2016)

Tasmania: 13 Ministers and Office Holders

94.9 (As at 1 March 2018) (80.8 at 1 March 2016)

Number in Premier’s Office 15.2 (12.8 in 2016); Deputy Premier’s Office 10.9 (8.2 in 2016)

Australian Capital Territory: 10 Ministers and Office Holders

54 (in 2017-18 Budget) (55 in 2015-16 according to 2017-18 Budget Paper)

Northern Territory: 9 Ministers (at 2014)

78.34 FTE as at 26 March 2014

Total Reported Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministerial Staffers (As at 21 April 2018 or the nearest reporting date for the respective jurisdiction):

1666.64 (1219.64 in the states and territories)

(2016: 1614.94 with 1194.94 in the states and territories)