Army of advisors: staffer ranks up in Albanese's office

Data tabled in Senate estimates last week shows that staff in Anthony Albanese's office are moving on up too - while Mr Albanese had three principal advisers in May 2023, he now has four, and his senior advisers (at the top level) have shot up from five to nine.

Accordingly, there has been some fluctuation in the lower ranks of the office.

While the data appears to show that the size of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has grown by 10 positions since Scott Morrison was in power, a government source said staffing was actually unchanged.

Documents tabled in March 2022, showed Mr Morrison employed about 51 people in his office, but a separate "cabinet office" listed further down lists another nine staff, including an additional principal adviser.

The Albanese government has also abandoned the practice of paying staff at higher rates than the top salary range for their classification.

Across all government, opposition and crossbench offices in March 2022, 58 staff were receiving an aggregate of $1.6 million in additional salary. That figure is zero under the current government.

It comes as a new parliamentary agency probes resourcing allocations and support services for parliamentarian offices.

A team within the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service is due to hand back its Independent Review of Resourcing in Parliamentarian Offices in October 2024 - to the Prime Minister.

Elsewhere in the cabinet, staffing has stayed roughly the same in the last year.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles had 18 staff in May 2023, but now has 19, while the Treasurer's team has remained fixed at 18.

Katy Gallagher, who has three portfolios, has gained two staff in the last year.

Overall, government staffers have increased by 13 from May 2023, up from 418 to 431.

Staffing allocations have stayed about the same for the Opposition, increasing by just one in the past year to 103.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's team of 36 has remained at the same level.

Resourcing for the Greens and independents remains relatively unchanged, though this has been controversial on the crossbench after Labor cut resourcing for these offices.