Independent WA senator Fatima Payman has stunned a parliamentary committee hearing by asking if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was waiting for a Helen Haines-style attack on her before finally granting the senator additional staff.
Payman refused to withdraw the comment, stating she would only do so if she were granted the additional political staffers.
On the same day when MPs lined up to deliver tributes to Haines, who last week had both her legs amputated after she was rammed by a four-wheel-drive outside her office, many politicians called for the temperature to be turned down on political debate.
Payman, who has been targeted more than most MPs with abuse and extremist threats, has been asking for nearly two years for Albanese to allocate her two additional “adviser” level staff – who are paid better than electorate staff that all MPs have – to cope with the demands of being an independent representative.
Last Thursday, a Queensland Bunnings worker pleaded guilty to six counts of using a carriage service to menace or harass Payman, including a phone call in March where he hoped the senator would be run over by a truck.
Last November, a Ballarat man pleaded guilty to threatening the senator by email, writing that there was a bullet with her name on it. Payman’s office estimates it has referred over 100 incidents to Australian Federal Police.
In a Senate estimates hearing late on Monday evening, Payman asked Special Minister of State Don Farrell why senators including Lidia Thorpe and Tammy Tyrrell received extra personal staffing allocations after leaving their original political parties.
“Has the prime minister refused to make a decision on my request because, unlike all the other defectors, I defected from the Labor Party? Am I being made an example of?” Payman asked.
Farrell said he would raise the matter with Albanese again, prompting a furious response from the WA senator.
“I’ve been raising it for two years ... my staff are expected to do the job of an office that has seven full-timers, so I don’t know how the ‘same job, same pay’ thing that Labor keeps bragging about applies to my team?
“They can’t take this any longer. And 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 request seriously?”
The comment drew an immediate rebuke from Farrell and Labor committee chair senator Karen Grogan.
“I personally think that’s an outrageous suggestion, Senator Payman,” Farrell said.
Payman shot back: “I can’t believe that I’m saying that, or making that suggestion, because it’s been two years.”
Grogan then interrupted and suggested that Payman take a moment “to think about those kind of accusations” and said the senator had made an outrageous statement.
Farrell suggested Payman “go further and withdraw that suggestion about the prime minister’s motivation. Because it’s absolutely not the case”.
But Payman refused to withdraw her comment and said: “With all due respect, I haven’t made any accusation.” Grogan replied: “I think you just did.”
Payman said: “I mean, you can take it as an accusation, minister. But once you’ve discussed it [staffing allocations] with the prime minister, and if he thinks that’s an accusation, then I’ll withdraw it.”
The visibly upset WA senator then added: “I’ve been waiting two years, chair, and I am tired of looking in my staff’s eyes and saying you’ll just have to deal with this because the prime minister is petty and is taking it out on me.”
Grogan said the comments were unparliamentary and that she would be “delighted” to raise it with Senate president Sue Lines.
“We should be better than that, and particularly on a day like today, we should all be better than that, but you’re not going to be,” Grogan replied.
Albanese has sole discretion over the amount of staff allocated to independent and opposition parties, and most independents have either one or two additional adviser-level staff.
Earlier in the hearing, Payman asked Farrell a series of questions about the allocation of extra staff to independent MPs, including why independent MP Nicolette Boele and Greens leaders Larissa Waters – and then David Shoebridge – all had their requests for extra staff met while she did not.
The new Greens leader had his request to maintain the additional advisers allocated to Waters within two weeks, compared to the 23 months Payman has been waiting. Days later, the Greens voted with Labor to block One Nation’s motion calling for a staffing inquiry.
Farrell replied: “I’m sure the prime minister, as he always does, gives it due consideration and at this point has not made a decision to allocate additional staff to yourself.”