Unlikely political bedfellows team up against Albanese over staff

Usually they wouldn’t be seen dead together.

But Pauline Hanson, Fatima Payman and Dai Le joined forces on Thursday to condemn Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for discriminating against them in staffing allocations.

The prime minister decides how many personal staff parliamentarians receive, and he has been arbitrary in his decisions.

Senator Payman, an independent who defected from the Labor Party last term to the crossbench over the issue of Palestine, has complained constantly about being discriminated against.

Leaving aside electorate staff, she has no personal staff allocated to her compared, for example, with the two each that fellow independents David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe (who defected from the Greens) have.

One Nation doubled its Senate representation from two to four at the 2025 election but received no extra staff.

After its win in the Farrer byelection One Nation has six in the parliament, but only five staff in total.

Le won the Labor seat of Fowler in 2022 as an indeopendent.

She has an allocation of one staffer.

Payman made a highly personal attack on Albanese at their joint news conference.

Australia has heard the prime minister’s recent comments on melons, on Grace Tame, and Kylie Minogue.

He brags about his female majority caucus and the government’s track record on women’s rights.

But are those rights only granted to women who agree with him? I know the prime minister wants to punish me, but he should not be allowed to play favouritism.

There should be an independent process that guides resourcing when it comes to parliament, not the whim of a petty man.