Has Politics Become More Professional? Career and Legislative Professionalisation in the Australian Parliament Since 1950

“Professional politicians” have been lamented for their perceived negative impact on representative democracy. However, the concept of “political professionalisation” is deployed inconsistently, making these claims difficult to assess. This article develops a framework to measure professionalisation across two dimensions: career professionalisation (capturing MPs' changing career trajectories) and legislative professionalisation (describing the changing character of parliamentary service). These measures are used to determine whether professionalism increased in the Parliament of Australia between 1950 and 2023. There is strong evidence of career professionalisation from the 1950s to the 2010s in the pre‐parliamentary educational and occupational backgrounds of members. However, other measures of career professionalisation are either inconclusive (i.e., prior elected service) or have declined since the late 1980s (average age of MPs) and early 2000s (duration of service). The legislative professionalisation trends are also mixed. A fivefold increase in politically appointed staff clearly indicates professionalisation, while a steady rise in basic remuneration as a proportion of the median wage from the early 1990s demonstrates professionalisation, although this followed a period of de‐professionalisation between the early 1950s and late 1980s. Finally, parliamentary service is marked by an increase in the prevalence of professional values. Overall, no decisive trend towards professionalisation is identified.