SENATE

Monday, 27 February 2017 Senate Page 7
figures conflate, I think, the number of references to references committees in the previous parliament with both
references and legislation committees this time around.
Senator WONG: Could we disaggregate them?
CHAIR: Yes, that is what I was going to ask. On notice, if you could break it down.
Mr Pye: I think that they have been disaggregated in the letter that I have provided to the committee.
CHAIR: For the previous parliaments as well or just this one?
Mr Pye: I can certainly go back and disaggregate them.
Senator WONG: Can I just clarify that answer? So the 107 or 111—whatever the number is—was legislation
and references referrals, but the comparator from earlier years that was used in the article was references only.
Mr Pye: Was references only.
CHAIR: So if we could break down in those last three parliaments which where legislation and which were
references—and Senate select committees as well.
Mr Pye: We can take that on notice.
CHAIR: I understand that for some committee secretariats the workload of all of this has been quite high and
some committees have had to hire additional staff to meet that workload.
Mr Pye: I do not know that we are hiring additional staff so much as, a couple of years ago, we established a
kind of troubleshooting secretariat—I think we referred to it as 'surge capacity' in some of our material—which
gives us a greater ability to deploy staff to committees that are busier.
CHAIR: So, no additional staff in this parliament have been hired?
Mr Pye: We have increased our staff complement this parliament, yes, to meet that, but we are not bringing in
contractors or anything.
CHAIR: No, of course not. How many extra staff have been hired?
Mr Pye: I think the numbers are in your package. I will just find them. We are up to 69 full-time equivalent
staff in the committee office right now. The average in the last parliament was 67, but we, obviously, would have
had a lower staffing complement in the first couple of months of this parliament, so we expect that the numbers
will be in the low 70s as an average by the end of this financial year.
CHAIR: Which is the highest in the years of data you have provided.
Mr Pye: That is right.
CHAIR: This will definitely need to be on notice, but, as a proportion of the Senate's budget, how much is
now going to committee activities relative to other activities?
Mr Pye: We are talking about the committee office rather than committees more broadly. As you know there
are committees that are looked after by some of the other offices as well. It is about $8.8 million out of about $23
million, so a third.
CHAIR: Historically is that about proportional or is it higher than usual?
Mr Pye: It is a bit higher than usual.
CHAIR: Perhaps you could quantify, proportionally over the last three parliaments, what the figures have
been?
Mr Pye: We can do that for you on notice, Chair.
CHAIR: Thank you. Senator Smith.
Senator McALLISTER: Before we leave this minor questioning, in taking these questions on notice, of those
34 references in this last parliament, could you indicate which of those were supported by the government in the
chamber, which would be of assistance as well.
Mr Pye: I will certainly be able to do that where a division was taken, but where matters are voted on the
voices it is a very difficult thing to do.
Senator McALLISTER: I understand. Thank you, Mr Pye.
Mr Pye: Thank you, Senator.
CHAIR: Senator Smith.
Senator SMITH: At page 4 of the document you provided to us, Clerk, there is a figure under 'Joint standing
select', which says that staff costs for the year 2015-16 was 719.
FINANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LEGISLATION COMMITTEE