Now lawDemocracy & Government Introduced in the House of Representatives, 04 Mar 2026

Three Parliament workplace reviews can now run as one

Parliament has three laws that cover politicians' staff, their work costs and help at work. Each was due for its own check-up at a different time. This law lets them all be checked at once from March 2026.

Official name: Parliamentary Frameworks Legislation Amendment (Reviews) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Politicians' staff: The laws on how they are hired and helped will be checked together, and sooner than planned.
• MPs and senators: The rules on their work costs and staff will be checked in one joint review.
• People who complain about bad behaviour in Parliament: The law that set up the help service and the body that handles complaints is part of the review.

Three workplace laws, three reviews

Parliament House is a workplace. Politicians hire staff. They spend public money on their work. They need rules for how people treat each other.

Three laws cover this. The first is the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984. It lets politicians hire staff for the federal government.

The second is the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017. It sets the rules for what politicians can spend on their work.

The third is the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service Act 2023. It set up a service that helps politicians and staff with staffing and workplace issues.

That 2023 law also set up the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission. It looks into people who may have broken Parliament's rules on behaviour.

Many of these changes came from a 2021 report called Set the Standard. The Australian Human Rights Commission wrote it. That is an independent national body that protects human rights. It wrote the report after looking into Parliament's workplaces.

Each of the three laws says it must be reviewed by a certain date.

The problem with old dates

The review dates did not line up. The help service law had to be reviewed starting no later than 22 July 2026.

The staff law could not be reviewed before 17 October 2026. Its review had to be done by 17 October 2028.

The work costs law was next due for review after 2 August 2027.

The government also wants to check how the Set the Standard changes are working. It says one joint review would stop different reviews from reaching answers that clash.

It would also mean politicians and staff are not asked the same questions again and again. The government calls this review fatigue. That means being worn out by too many reviews.

New review dates

The staff law review now has to be done as soon as it can after 22 March 2026. That means it can start from 23 March 2026. This review happens just once.

The next review of the work costs law can also start from 23 March 2026. After that, it happens five years later, from 23 March 2031. Then it happens every five years.

The help service law review can also start from 23 March 2026. The next one is from 23 March 2031, then every five years.

Before this law, the help service had to be reviewed once in every term of Parliament. A term is the time between elections.

The later dates now match. So the 2031 reviews of the work costs law and the help service law can be done together or apart.

Start date

The law started the day after it was signed into law.

Senator Don Farrell is the minister in charge. His title is Special Minister of State. That minister looks after how government and Parliament run. The bill was brought to the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, on 4 March 2026.

The House passed it on 11 March 2026. The Senate, the other house of Parliament, passed it on 12 March 2026.

The Governor-General is the King's representative in Australia. He signed it into law on 13 March 2026. It is now Act No. 11 of 2026.

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum

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