He received a letter this week from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who personally approved the $200,000 position.
But it has raised the ire of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who issued a statement saying One Nation was “deeply concerned that the government is seeking to use taxpayer funds to exert undue political influence over politicians”.
Ms Hanson says “the Prime Minister should not personally control the resources available to his political opponents”.
One Nation recently joined Independent Members of Parliament demanding “consistent, transparent and independently determined staffing allocations”.
In the statement, Ms Hanson also revealed that “Over the past few weeks, the Prime Minister has met with David (Farley) privately”.
“The Prime Minister initiated these meetings. This week, David received a letter from the Prime Minister stating that he had allocated David a personal staff position outside of One Nation’s unresolved staffing request,” the statement said.
“David did not request this allocation of staff. No reason was provided by the Prime Minister for the provision of this staff.
“Following these discussions, senior ministers raised grant funding under the Sustainable Communities Program for the Murray-Darling Basin. David did not initiate the discussion regarding this program.
“Taken together, these actions have left David and One Nation deeply concerned that the government is seeking to use taxpayer funds to exert undue political influence over politicians.
“We have decided to expose these grubby dealings because the public deserves to know what the Albanese Labor government is doing behind closed doors.”
The Pastoral Times is seeking further comment from Mr Farley.
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