05:49

Penny Wong and Mathias Cormann have had a very robust exchange about the government’s staffing committee, and whether they treat approvals of Liberal and National staff the same way.





Cormann says that the prime minister and the committee has only an “administrative” role in approving changes to staffing arrangements and informing the finance department.





Wong objects repeatedly to his use of “administrative” - she points out the prime minister is the one that gives the legal power to appointments by other ministers, including Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan, who both hired Joyce’s now partner Vikki Campion.





Cormann:“I’m just a humble non-English speaking immigrant.”



He accuses Wong of playing a semantic word game, when all staffing approval decisions are matters of administration.

