Don Farrell

We estimate Don Farrell received a parliamentary salary of: $376,850

Based on the Remuneration Tribunal base salary of $239,270 plus any additional allowance for ministerial, shadow or office-holder roles held at time of generation.

• Latest quarter total: $464,067
• Printing and Communications: $7,445
• Publications: $37
• Office Consumables and Services: $3,770
• Telecommunications - Residential - Official: $352
• Telecommunications - Usage: $1,146
• Travel Allowance: $14,957
• Parliamentary Duties: $121
• Fares: $22,029
• COMCAR: $6,267
• Domestic Travel: $225,917
• International Travel: $41,678
• Ministerial Visits: $40,134
• Office Facilities - Not stated: $100,215

• Australia ‘prepared to provide assistance’ in the strait of Hormuz, PM says, as ‘fragile’ opening expected to ease fuel prices
• Labor ‘not considering’ joining US blockade of strait of Hormuz – as it happened
• Why is Anthony Albanese visiting Singapore amid Australia’s fuel crisis – and what could come from it?
• Anonymous $200,000 donation to charity providing free meals – as it happened
• Labor backs Greens inquiry into gas export tax – as it happened
• Morning Mail: Tehran’s warning for US troops; tough choices coming in fuel crisis; anger over ‘ridiculous’ NDIS delays
• Queensland government scraps emissions target for Brisbane Olympics – as it happened
• Fuel supply and Middle East conflict dominate political debate – as it happened
• Melbourne mosque closed after suspicious package found – as it happened
• Major parties knock back inquiry into racism and sexism in the Senate – as it happened

• Albanese rejects push from Special Minister of State Don Farrell to expand size of parliament (2026-03-31)
  Michelle Grattan
  The Prime Minister has killed off a plan for a bigger parliament.
• It takes many ghosts to make a story: how Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet takes from – and mistakes – Shakespeare (2026-01-12)
  Kate Flaherty, Amy Walters
  Was the premature death of Shakespeare’s only son really the inspiration for Hamlet?
• In Colum McCann’s Twist, the undersea data cables that connect us inspire a story of mystery and severed connections (2025-04-09)
  Chris Murray
  Twist is a richly allusive novel, with echoes of Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Philip Roth.
• Barry O'Farrell quits as NSW Premier over ICAC ‘memory fail’ (2014-04-16)
  Michelle Grattan
  New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell has rocked the Liberal Party by quitting over evidence contradicting his earlier denial to the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he was given a $3000…
• In The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell distorts the historical record to suit modern sensibilities (2022-10-17)
  Jessica O'Leary
  A fictional portrayal of Lucrezia de’ Medici imagines the inner life of a tragic historical figure, but effaces the true complexity of her situation.
• ICAC has highlighted that unsavoury intersection where business, political donations/gifts, and lobbying meet (2014-04-16)
  Michelle Grattan
  Barry O'Farrell had no option but to resign his premiership, given his emphatic denials of receiving a $3000 bottle of Grange from the chief of the company lobbying intensively for a water contract. Once…
• Grattan on Friday: Don Farrell has an electoral reform blueprint, but it could be a rough road to implementation (2024-07-11)
  Michelle Grattan
  The far-reaching electoral reforms, which Farrell aims to bring to parliament in the fortnight sitting. Its seems unlikely to be in place for the coming election, due by May next year.
• Politics with Michelle Grattan: Special Minister of State Don Farrell wants donation and spending caps for next election (2023-06-20)
  Michelle Grattan
  In this podcast, Michelle and Minister of State Don Farrell discuss the governments sweeping changes to electoral laws, countering misinformation and what now for the Housing Australia Future Fund
• Politics with Michelle Grattan: Don Farrell’s high noon for European free trade deal, and hopes for lobster exports to China (2023-10-25)
  Michelle Grattan
  In this podcast, the Minister for Trade and Special Minister of State Don Farrell joins The Conversation to canvass Australia's prospective trade agreement with the EU, relations with China, and electoral reform
• From O'Farrell to Baird: a new start for NSW politics? (2014-04-17)
  Michael Hogan
  Mike Baird has been elected unopposed as the new NSW Liberal Party leader, and will soon become the state’s 44th premier after the shock resignation of Barry O'Farrell yesterday. But what are the prospects…
• View from The Hill: Don Farrell pushes to pass Labor’s electoral reforms before Christmas (2024-11-10)
  Michelle Grattan
  In a government that puts ministers on show until people are sick of seeing their faces, Don Farrell is a man with hardly a public profile.
• History repeats: how O'Farrell and Greiner fell foul of ICAC (2014-04-16)
  Today, the New South Wales Independent Commission into Corruption (ICAC) claimed its biggest political scalp in two decades. Liberal state premier Barry O’Farrell resigned after what he has described as…
• Grattan on Friday: Labor’s ‘Godfather’ seeks deal on electoral reform – but some fear changes could disadvantage community candidates (2023-06-22)
  Michelle Grattan
  Farrell and Albanese were long-time factional opponents. But under Albanese’s government, Farrell is prospering. With the thaw in China-Australia relations, it’s a very good time to be trade minister.
• Talking Ordinary: from Simic to Farrell (2017-11-14)
  Kevin John Brophy
  Where Robert Frost might write a few lines soundly cut from the solid old tree of language and delivered in his mellifluous White Mountain voice, The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a…
• O’Farrell fell short of basic standards in business and public life (2014-04-16)
  Thomas Clarke
  It is tragic that New South Wales has lost an able and dedicated Premier apparently over a bottle of wine, even if it is a $3000 bottle of 1959 Penfolds Grange. Many will be sad to see Barry O’Farrell…
• Baird elected NSW Premier, flags disclosure changes (2014-04-17)
  Mike Baird is the new premier of New South Wales with Gladys Berejiklian as deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party, after being elected unopposed at a party meeting this afternoon. The result was all but…
• O'Farrell resignation: red wine, political blood and cultural memory (2014-04-22)
  David Rowe
  Political scandals, the perennial product of the grinding gears of greed and governance, proliferate in the age of digital media, the 24-hours news cycle and anti-corruption bodies with wide powers. Constant…
• My favourite fictional character: Maggie O'Farrell’s rebel Esme Lennox refuses to be the ‘perfect victim’ – even in an asylum (2023-12-26)
  Amy Walters
  Maggie O'Farrell’s homage to The Yellow Wallpaper inhabits a ‘difficult’ young woman who survives tragedy in colonial India and is incarcerated by her family for refusing gender and social norms.
• Grattan on Friday: believe it or not, there would be a case for more federal politicians (2025-10-02)
  Michelle Grattan
  Very few voters trust (or even like) politicians, so it’s hard to imagine a world where the government would create more, but Don Farrell may well try.
• Politics with Michelle Grattan: Special Minister of State Don Farrell on getting ‘big money’ out of elections (2024-11-20)
  Michelle Grattan
  On this podcast we are talking with Special Minister of State Don Farrell about the changes to political donation laws and the criticisms.
• Stories, satires and ‘experiments’: 3 vibrant new collections show the range and wit of Australian fiction (2025-08-08)
  Sam Ryan
  The inventive fictions of Michael Farrell, Lucy Nelson and Alex Cothren display flashes of brilliance and humour.
• Priest convicted of sexually abusing children, now for the questions about a cover-up (2016-05-04)
  David Hamer
  Church cover-ups are extremely serious. Child victims are especially vulnerable and often suffer long-term psychological harm.
• ‘Real time’ donation disclosure and spending limits in Labor electoral reforms (2024-07-11)
  Michelle Grattan
  Political donations would need to be disclosed in “real time” during elections under reform legislation brought by Special Minister of State Don Farrell.
• Why a solution to the St John’s scandal lies with Barry O’Farrell (2012-11-23)
  Julia Horne
  Why is the University of Sydney powerless to stop bullying behaviour in what the public sees as “its colleges”? This has been a constant refrain in recent weeks as the controversy surrounding the behaviour…
• Grattan on Friday: A future plan on fuel should be central to Albanese government’s reform agenda (2026-04-02)
  Michelle Grattan
  Albanese said the fuel crisis won’t prevent the government from delivering its “most ambitious” budget. In doing so, he set the marker of how to judge it.
• Government’s electoral reform legislation delayed until September (2024-08-06)
  Michelle Grattan
  The delay is because of the significant and complicated drafting of the legislation and, in particular, obtaining further advice on the constitutionality of the spending caps.
• How Sydney’s Barangaroo tower paved the way for closed-door deals (2021-06-02)
  Dallas Rogers, Chris Gibson
  James Packer’s Barangaroo tower has not just changed Sydney’s skyline. It has changed the whole planning system.
• Liberals argue Labor’s electoral reform package should stand or fall as a whole in any court challenge (2024-11-29)
  Michelle Grattan
  An attempt by the Liberals to insert a legal time bomb into the electoral reform and a Labor proposal that would give the ACTU a generous donation cap were main reasons a deal on the bill imploded.
• The Australian history boom has busted, but there’s hope it may boom again (2017-01-24)
  Frank Bongiorno
  Historians may not be the media stars they were in the 1980s, but understanding our history remains vital to understanding ourselves.
• Emerson, Farrell and Bird to share higher education portfolio (2013-03-25)
  Sunanda Creagh
  Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today named Craig Emerson as her new Tertiary Education minister, saying that junior ministers Don Farrell and Sharon Bird will assist him in the role. The reshuffle…