One step at a time: Australian parliamentarians, professionalism and the need for staff

The concept of professionalism in the context of parliaments can refer either to the parliamentarian himself or herself, as a person dedicated to a political career, or to the parliamentarian’s working conditions and environment. This article takes one aspect of working conditions and environment, the provision of personal staff to members of Australia’s Commonwealth Parliament, and relates it to the transformation of politicians from amateurs to professionals during the twentieth century. The story is related to the Australian social and cultural context. Parliamentarians did not decide in isolation that they needed more and different staff. As their jobs and their environment changed, so also did their requirements and their perception of their requirements. Nor is this only an Australian phenomenon. British parliamentarians have seen the same need for staff over the same period.