Parliamentary Staff

Parliamentary staff are employees of the New Zealand Parliament.

## Categories of Staff

Parliamentary staff are employeed by three branches of the New Zealand Parliament:

* *the Parliamentary Service* which provides staff for Congressional Representatives and Senators and political parties
* *the Clerk of the House of Representatives* who is apolitical and responsible for adminstrative mattters in the House of Representative
* *the Clerk of the Senate* who is apolitical and responsible for adminstrative mattters in the Senate

Parliamentary Services Staff are either:

* *Personal Staff,* who work for individual Representatives or Senators
* *Leadership Staff,* who work for the speaker, majority and minority leaders, and majority and minority whips in the House of Representatives, and the majority and minority leaders and  majority and minority whips in the Senate
* *Committee Staff,* who work for parliamentary committee chairs in the House of Representatives and Senate
* *Party Staff,* who work for party caucuses under the management of party whips.

## Staffing Roles

All staffing roles fall within one of four tiers which relates to the salary band and job title.

 2
 3
 4

* *Chief of Staff*, based in Parliament and responsible for all other staff within a Representative or Senator's office. Typically an experienced and senior staff member with previous Parliamentary experience.
* *Senior Political Advisor,* typically only used by majority leaders and responsible for giving political advice and guidance.
* *Communications Director or Press Secretary*, responsible for managing communications advisors and setting the communications strategy. In smaller offices maybe the only staff member with responsibilities for communications.
* *Legislative Director*, based at Parliament and responsible for managing legislative advisors and directing all legislative activity.
* *Community Engagement Director*, based in a Senator's District and responsible for managing community engagement advisors.
* *Community Engagement Advisor,* based in the member's District and responsible for casework, community engagement and communications.
* *Legislative Advisor*, based at Parliament and responsible for Parliamentary process, legislative goals, Committee assignments and scheduling.
* *Communications Advisor*, commonly based in Parliament and responsible for managing a respresentatives media presence, social media and public profile.

## Personal Staff

Each member of the House of Representatives is allocated funding for one full-time and one part time Tier 3 staff member. Parliamentary Services recommends that members allocate a full time staff member as a Community Engagement Advisor and a part time staff member as a Legislative Advisor, although Representatives can choose other configurations.

Each member of the Senate is allocated funding for two full-time staff member and one part-time staff member for every Congressional District they represent. This means Senators have either six or six and a half staff members depending on whether their Senate seat has 8 or 9 Districts. Similar to Representatives, most staff will either be Community Engagement Advisor or Legislative Advisor although Senators will commonly have other staffing roles.

In addition, Representatives who's Districts are over 9,000 square kilometers in area are entitled to an additional office and an additional Community Engagement Advisor. This currently applies to 11 Districts. This also applies to Senators who represent an area over 25,000 square kilometers. This currently applies to Senators from Dunedin, Nelson Lakes and Southland.

## Leadership Staff

In addition to their personal staff, Congressional leaders are also entitled to additional staff.

 House of Representatives Speaker
 Minority Leaders
 Majority Whips
 Minority Whips

## Committee Staff

Members of the House of Representatives and Senators who also chair Committee’s are entitled to additional staffing allocations. Committee Chair’s receive two additional full-time staff members while the Minority’s leader on a committee also receives one additional part-time staff member.

## Party Staff

Each political party in Parliament is also able to access funding for additional staff members who report to the caucus as a whole. Party staffers are allocated by taking a parties total seats in the House and Senate, divided by 5 and then rounded to the nearest whole number.

Party staff commonly work centrally to coordinate campaigns, messaging, community engagement and strategy across all members of a political party. They can also be seconded to individual members or take on specific responsibilities or projects.