Numbers of Ministerial Staff – Commonwealth, States and Territories – As at November 2018

Numbers of Ministerial staff at the Commonwealth and each of the states and territories 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 below).

Number of Ministers and Office Holders are those numbers reported against the most recent staff numbers, where available.

Choosing an Ombudsman: Revelations from the 1987 NSW Cabinet Papers

The choice for New South Wales’ Ombudsman in 1987 came down to a senior Departmental head and a solicitor with a familiar name in Labor circles; the latter promising a less contested relationship between the government and the Ombudsman’s Office after years of strife between the two.

Cabinet papers for the NSW Government, recently released under the “30 year rule” still applicable in NSW, offer an insight into the appointment of David Landa as NSW’s third Ombudsman.

While the selection panel narrowed the eventual choice to Landa, a prominent solicitor with strong Labor connections, and Trevor Haines, the then Secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department, an impressive shortlist was interviewed, with gender and (relative) youth no bar to inclusion.

However, reducing the eventual choice to Landa and Haines seemingly reflected a desire to create a more harmonious relationship between government and watchdog than existed during the term of George Masterman, QC, who held the post between 1981 and 1987.

Number of Ministerial Staff in Australia – 2016

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

NSW Political Donations Reform – Background and Resources (Updated)

In May 2014, in response to the mounting revelations at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of breaches and circumvention of NSW’s electoral disclosure laws, particularly in respect of donations by prohibited donors, Premier Mike Baird announced a Panel of Experts to review the system of political donations.

Numbers of Ministerial Staff by State and Territory in 2011-12

Numbers of Ministerial staff drawn from the most recent, most authoritative source publicly available (Post updated after Queensland figures were updated in week of 8 October 2012)

“War” on Cut and Paste?

Surely when a Parliamentary Secretary for Veterans Affairs, with a long record of military service, is called to speak on commemorative occasions, he could be relied on to string together a few suitable words of his own? Apparently not.

Over the past few years, Liberal Member of the Legislative Council, Charlie Lynn, has plagiarised articles and websites in making a series of Parliamentary speeches to mark significant military occasions and tributes. While he’s not alone in adopting these lax standards, the scale in conjunction with the nature of his responsibilities as a Parliamentary Secretary, are of concern.

Blue Books or Bland Books?

After months of wrangling, the O’Farrell Government has finally released several of the “incoming government briefings” – colloquially known as the “Blue Books” – given to it by government departments following the March 2011 election.

The Australian Financial Review had sought the release of these Blue Books under the Government Information Public Access Act (GIPA): the basis of NSW’s freedom of information regime.

Wild Dogs, Opera Houses and Empire Building

Every first term government in its first weeks and months wants to “do more with less” to the size of government.

In recent years, with the infiltration of the Management Mechanics, it usually starts out as, say, half a dozen Mega-Ministries and 8 or 9 Super-Dooper-Departments.

Well, the O’Farrell Government hasn’t let NSW down.

O’Farrell Govt Staff Numbers Jump 40%

It took only 82 days for the number of O’Farrell Government Ministerial staffers to swell by 40 percent.

Barely two and a half months after trotting out the usual post-election bromides of running a “mean, lean machine”, the number of staffers has bulked up quicker than a Spanish cyclist.