Pauline Hanson and Fatima Payman have set aside a long-standing feud to form an unlikely alliance to demand increased staffing levels, labelling Anthony Albanese a “petty man” with “weak leadership”.
At a joint press conference in Canberra, the One Nation leader and the WA independent senator along with Fowler MP Dai Le accused the Prime Minister of being vindictive in his allocation of resources.
They said Mr Albanese has forced them to “beg” for the same staffing other politicians are afforded and insisted there needed to be an independent process established.
Senator Payman, a former Labor member, claimed the PM “wants to punish me” after she breached the party’s strict rules on caucus solidarity in 2024 over the Government’s refusal to immediately recognise Palestine as a state.
After she became the first Labor MP in decades to defy her party, she was shunned and eventually quit to sit on the crossbench.
“I know the Prime Minister wants to punish me but he should not be allowed to play favouritism,” Senator Payman said.
“There should be an independent process that guides resourcing when it comes to Parliament, not the whim of a petty man.”
Ms Le also felt she was being punished “because I have taken over a safe Labor seat”.
The trio backed up one another and nodded in agreement to remarks throughout the press conference, which they prefaced with insisting they wouldn’t take questions on other topics.
The alliance is remarkable giving the history of clashes between the women, with Senator Payman calling Senator Hanson “racist” in 2024 for wearing a burka into the Upper House.
“I kept on giving you the benefit of the doubt, Senator Hanson, despite your repetitive attempts to be racist to anyone who does not look like you,” Senator Payman said at the time.
“You are not just vindictive, mean, nasty. You bring disgrace to the human race.”
Senator Hanson also pulled no punches in 2025 when she described Senator Payman as “ignorant”.
“She came out from Afghanistan. I question about her citizenship and whether she should be a member of Parliament, which they just ignored, and no investigation into it at all,” Senator Hanson told Sky News.
However, when reporters quizzed the duo on whether they considered previous sledges directed at each other such as “vindictive, mean, nasty” and a “disgrace to the human race” before joining forces.
“This is not about any comments that were made in the past,” Senator Hanson said.
“We’re not asking for any more than what has been given to other members of parties, and that is adequate staffing for us to do our jobs,” Senator Hanson said.
“I have been asking, requesting, begging. Actually, I have been begging the Prime Minister to listen to what is happening in my office and to allow me, the staff, to do my job.”
“Why does he have control over the staffing levels of any parliamentarian?”
Senator Payman, who has no funding for personal staff, said scrapping her assistance had placed more burden on her team.
“The staff in my office are forced to face unnecessary psychosocial hazards and burnout,” she said.
“Australians want to see politicians in a mature way to put their differences aside when it comes to common causes.
“We can come together, join forces, and say we demand better from this government, who claims to be standing for workers’ rights, to be standing for safety in workplaces.
“We’ll then make sure that this workplace is safe for us.”
Senator Payman also suggested the decision was an act of sexist behaviour before rattling off previous gendered incidents by the Prime Minister.
“We have different views on almost everything. But what we have all in common is we’re all women,” she pointed out.
“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?”
On Thursday, Ms Le said the PM’s power over staffing allocations was ultimately hurting the communities they had been elected to represent.
“It should not be used against us when he allocates resources,” she said.
“What he’s trying to do is that he’s trying to basically stop us from actually doing a proper representation, and that is hurting our community a lot.
“That means we have less resources . . . to serve them and bring their issues to the parliament.”
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