Political staffers pocket $23m post-election windfall

Political staffers secured a bumper $23 million pay day after the last federal election thanks to a little-known tweak to employment contracts made by the former Morrison government.

A total of 591 advisers – ranging from the most junior electorate officers to chiefs of staff on six-figure salaries – lost their jobs and were paid severance packages after the election.

The cost to the Commonwealth was $22.81 million, or an average of $38,594 for each of those almost 600 people – a payout equivalent to 78 per cent of the yearly minimum wage in Australia.

Following the May 2025 election, 227 of those 591 staffers had returned to work in a different political office by October, with the average amount of time out of work being just 15 days, or $2573 per day.

A whopping 107 political staffers took between one and three days off before resuming their employment in politics, effectively handing those workers a nearly $40,000 one-off payment for being unemployed for less than a week.

Another 38 staffers were unemployed for between four and 10 days, while 82 staffers were not employed as ministerial staff for at least 10 days before returning to politics.

The information about the generous paydays was contained in an answer to a question on notice asked by the ACT’s independent senator, David Pocock. The information provided to Pocock did not specify which political parties the staffers worked for.

Lucrative payouts, followed by near-immediate redeployment, are allowed because of a change to the Members of Parliamentary Staff employment agreement, signed off by former finance minister Simon Birmingham in June 2021.

A change to a clause in the agreement significantly altered the rules around when and how staff can receive a payout – and how long they have to wait before returning to work for an MP.

Under the change, political staffers are now entitled to cash in their entitlements and leave at the end of a parliamentary term, and then be re-employed the next day – as long as they either return the money paid out to them, or confirm in writing that they are prepared to “reset” their entitlements, including accrued holiday pay, sick leave and more, back to zero.

Previously, staffers did not have the option to reset their entitlements to zero and would have to either wait months to become eligible to return to a political office, or pay back their entitlements.

It is common for there to be significant staff turnover after a federal election, with staff moving on because an MP has lost their seat, a minister changing or losing their portfolio, because a lucrative opportunity has arisen in the private sector, or simply because of burnout.

Staff receive an additional 30 per cent loading on top of the standard employment provisions, which provide for a four-week payout after one year of service, eight weeks of pay for two years service and increases from there, as long as the political staffer lost their job through no fault of their own.

The Albanese government declined to comment. However, a government source insisted the Morrison-era changes would actually save taxpayers money.

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