Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to give independent senator Fatima Payman an additional staffer over her decision to quit the Labor Party.<\/p>\n
Sources inside the Albanese government said the decision not to approve the WA Senator’s staff request was connected to her defection from Labor in 2024.<\/p>\n
Ms Payman left the Labor Party in dramatic fashion after crossing the floor of the senate over a vote on a motion supporting the recognition of Palestine.<\/p>\n
The senator later handed out how-to-vote material against Mr Albanese at pre-poll during the 2025 federal election in his own electorate of Grayndler.<\/p>\n
News24.com.au understands the PM\u2019s staffing refusal serves as a warning to other parliamentarians about the potential consequences of leaving the party.<\/p>\n
It comes as Ms Payman continues to publicly challenge the Prime Minister over a staffing request that has gone unanswered for almost two years.<\/p>\n
In response to the latest development, Ms Payman told News24.com.au that the Prime Minister was being “petty”.<\/p>\n
“(It’s) not very Prime Ministerial to continue this behaviour two years later and not very pro-worker to allow my staff to pay the price of his whims,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s time he did the right thing and give me my additional staff and hand back the staffing powers to an independent umpire.”<\/p>\n
Labor’s Environment Minister Murray Watt denied to News24.com.au that Ms Payman was being refused a staffer because she had defected from Labor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That’s not the case. Fatima Payman has received an extra staff member since she was elected as a Labor Party representative,” he told News24.com.au on Sunday.<\/p>\n
News24.com.au understands every parliamentarian went from four to five electorate officers at that time, and Ms Payman was still with Labor when it happened.<\/p>\n
“It’s always been the case that the Prime Minister of the day has managed staffing on advice. I don’t think that there’s a need to change that system,” Mr Watt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Special Minister of State Don Farrell has previously said that Mr Albanese has not provided a reason for why Ms Payman cannot have more staff.<\/p>\n
Coalition MP Kevin Hogan told News24.com.au that the Prime Minister was using staffing as a political weapon.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen with Senator Payman, you know, she believes she hasn’t got staff because she left the Labor Party,” Mr Hogan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He’s using anything and everything as leverage and weaponisation.”<\/p>\n
Ms Payman confronted Special Minister of State Don Farrell during Senate Estimates on Monday, demanding to know why her application had not been processed.<\/p>\n
Mr Farrell confirmed he had raised the matter with the Prime Minister several times but had received no response explaining the delay.<\/p>\n
“No, no, he hasn’t given me reasons,” Mr Farrell said when asked whether the Prime Minister had explained why the request remained unresolved.<\/p>\n
Ms Payman pointed to Teal MP Nicolette Boele, former Greens leader Larissa Waters and Greens leader David Shoebridge, whose requests were processed before hers.<\/p>\n
“So why are some applications being processed in just two weeks and others still waiting acknowledgement after two years?” she asked.<\/p>\n
Mr Farrell said the Prime Minister was the only person who could explain the differing treatment.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure the Prime Minister, as he always does, gives it due consideration and at this point he has not made a decision to allocate additional staff to yourself,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ms Payman suggested she was being made an example of because she had defected from Labor.<\/p>\n
Her staffing dispute took a dramatic turn when she invoked the recent attack on independent MP Dr Helen Haines.<\/p>\n
She asked whether the Prime Minister was waiting for something similar to happen to her office before taking her concerns seriously.<\/p>\n
“Is the Prime Minister waiting for something like what happened to Dr Helen Haines to occur to my office, to me, for him to take our requests seriously?” she said.<\/p>\n
Mr Farrell described Ms Payman’s suggestion about Ms Haines as “outrageous” and demanded she withdraw it, which she declined to do.<\/p>\n
She subsequently apologised to Dr Haines for her “clumsy wording”, confirming she had contacted the injured MP and her staff directly.<\/p>\n
“I have apologised for my clumsy wording on Monday night and I have conveyed those apologies directly to Dr Haines and her staff,” she said.<\/p>\n
The dispute has also raised questions about the Prime Minister’s apparently differing approach to staffing requests from other crossbenchers.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Mr Albanese offered One Nation MP David Farley an additional staff member with a salary package worth up to $200,000.<\/p>\n
Mr Farley rejected the unsolicited offer, with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson accusing the PM of attempting to use taxpayer resources for political influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to give independent senator Fatima Payman an additional staffer over her 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