No new expert staff, no new House building: Legislator

House Deputy Speaker Anis Matta said the future of the controversial plan for the new House of Representatives building would depended on whether legislators would each have five expert staff and a secretary.

“If the addition of expert staff for House members is canceled, the new building will not be necessary. What we need to oppose is the idea of adding more staff …” Anis said Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

He said legislators did need between one and four expert staff to assist in their work, and that the House secretary-general also needed more staff.

Anis said there could be up to 3,000 new employees in the House building.

“Parliament members do plenty of work, as well. How can this be done by one member alone? They need expert staff. Now it depends on how we work around this. But then again, that depends on the factions. A voting process would be employed if no agreement can be met,” he said.