Review of parliamentary entitlements committee report

• Department of Finance and Deregulation

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01 April 2011This report is the first comprehensive review of federal parliamentary entitlements conducted in over 35 years.

This report, completed in April 2010 and released on 24 March 2011, proposes a number of changes to improve the parliamentary entitlements framework. 

The report concluded that the existing arrangements are an extraordinarily complex plethora of entitlements containing myriad ambiguities.  The current framework comprises:  at least 11 Acts of Parliament; three sets of regulations; six Remuneration Tribunal determinations and reports; 21 determinations made by the Special Minister of State (the minister) under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 and nine formal procedural rules and sets of guidelines made by the minister to give effect to Remuneration Tribunal determinations.

This mix of primary legislation, regulations, determinations, procedural rules, executive decisions, accepted conventions and administrative practices has resulted over the years in inconsistency, ambiguity, duplication, overlap, redundancy and gaps in the framework.  To illustrate with just one example:  telephone services for senators and members are provided through seven overlapping entitlements under four heads of authority. The need for greater simplicity and transparency is a key focus in this report.

The report’s recommendations aim to ensure that senators and members are given relevant and adequate resources to do their jobs within a simplified, transparent and accountable framework that has regard to contemporary community standards. 

The first three chapters of this report provide background to the review: the geneses of the review; an overview of earlier reviews by independent committees as well as by the ANAO; the multiple roles of the modern federal parliamentarian; and the limitations of the current framework.  Appendix 1 outlines features of parliamentary entitlements systems in selected overseas  jurisdictions and Appendix 2 covers the themes of submissions received by the committee.  Chapters 4 to 8 cover the committee’s discussion of key issues and its recommendations.