Unlikely political bedfellows team up against Albanese over staff
While they wouldn’t normally be caught dead together, Pauline Hanson, Fatima Payman and Dai Le have held a joint press conference to take aim at the prime minister.
Pauline Hanson, Fatima Payman, and Dai Le united on Thursday to criticize Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for perceived discrimination in staff allocations. The opposition alleges the prime minister's decisions in assigning personal staff to parliamentarians are arbitrary and biased. Payman, a defector from the Labor Party to the crossbench over the Palestine issue, has repeatedly asserted she lacks adequate staff compared to her counterparts.
Despite One Nation's Senate representation doubling from two to four in the 2025 election, the party received no additional staff, leaving them with only five total. Le, who won the Labor seat of Fowler in 2022, has a single staff member assigned to her. Payman's news conference included a pointed personal attack on Albanese, questioning whether the prime minister's support for women's rights is contingent on agreement with his views.
The trio decried a lack of transparency and accountability in decision-making, calling for an independent process guiding resource allocation. Hanson pleaded with Albanese to reconsider, stating they are hurting Australians by withholding resources. The prime minister, she claims, does not respect other elected members of parliament and lacks concern for the people he represents.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
