This paper analyses the growth in numbers of ministerial staff and discusses the accountability of staffers, particularly their accountability to Parliament, in an historical perspective. It also looks at the regulation (or lack of regulation) of the people who work for the government of the day.

Ministers hold positions of power and influence. Some of the knowledge they acquire might be of a confidential nature, or could confer on them advantages if subsequently, as private citizens, they were to work in an area related to their former responsibilities. This Research Note examines Australian and overseas examples of the regulation of post-separation...