One Nation accuses Cook government of blackmailing conservative parties over extra staff

WA One Nation MP Rod Caddies has accused the Cook government of trying to blackmail him by withholding an extra part-time staff member for his office in return for him publicly supporting the biggest shake-up of electorate office staffing in decades.

The Greens and Legalise Cannabis WA MPs were given an extra 0.5 full-time equivalent staff member by the Cook government recently while conservative MPs like Caddies and Australian Christians have not yet received them.

Caddies and Australian Christians MP Maryka Groenwald both told this masthead the extra part-time staffer was promised to them if they signed a written letter of support of the recommendations outlined in the Morton review into electorate office staffing, released in October last year.

That review, triggered after a CCC inquiry into Labor’s use of taxpayer funded electorate officers for political purposes, recommended that all MPs receive one extra full-time equivalent staff member to reflect the state’s increased population and greater MP workload.

Caddies said the ultimatum amounted to blackmail and declared he would not support the recommendations.

“One Nation is not going to be blackmailed by the Premier, we are not going to be bullied by Labor into doing what they want us to do,” he said.

“The government used the promise of the additional staffing allocation to pressure the cross-bench into signing a letter of support for the recommendations of the Morton review.

“It is entirely backwards to give additional staff to two left-wing minor parties, but set conditions for the same staffing allocation to other cross-bench MPs.

“All members of parliament represent voters equally, so to play favourites with resourcing is actually completely disrespectful to taxpayers.

“I won’t accept MPs being disadvantaged by the parliament and the government in terms of resourcing, based on politics and ideology.”

Groenwald said she had a motion in Parliament to discuss the staffing issue after she found out the Greens and Legalise Cannabis had already received their extra staff, but withdrew it because the government assured her it would bring all crossbenchers in line.

She said she also wrote a letter supporting the recommendations and was promised she would hear back in January, but she did not.

Three months later, she said the excuse provided was related to the upcoming budget.

“Call me naive, but your word is your bond. I have pursued this issue the government since early last year in good faith,” she said.

“It was strongly implied that the extra staffing allocation would be provided as soon as I provided some support for recommendations of the Morton review findings, but no such luck.

“I take my role very seriously, but due to basic time constraints, my staff simply can’t focus on everything required. This is not because of them, because they’re working like crazy, but there are only so many hours in the day, and you have to cover the whole state now.”

Caddies refusal to support the 31 Morton review recommendations puts a spanner in Premier Roger Cook’s plans to act on the review.

When it was tabled in October last year, Cook said his government wanted multipartisan support before legislation was enacted to bring the Morton review recommendations to life.

A Cook government spokesman said it was through this multipartisan process the government sought support for the recommendations to help guide their implementation.

“To date, the government has received letters of support from representatives from the Liberal Party, National Party, Greens Party, the Australian Christians, Legalise Cannabis Party and Animal Justice Party,” he said.

“The Cook Labor government is committed to the principles of the review which will see a more transparent framework and recognition of the important and essential role that our electorate officers play in serving Western Australians.

“As is appropriate, any additional resources as part of the review would need to progress through standard budget processes.”

The Morton review, conducted by former Morrison government minister Ben Morton, recommended a new act that would govern how electorate officers are employed and what kinds of work they can do.

It found electorate office staffing levels of two FTE were lower in WA than every other major state and recommended each office be appointed a third staffer.

Despite the criticism arising from the CCC investigation over electorate officers engaging in party political activity, the Morton review also recommended that MPs should be able to use their taxpayer-funded resources to engage in party duties like attending political party conferences and developing policies that may be taken to an election.

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