Payman and Hanson are right. Albanese should forget the king rat

October 29, 2026 — 6:09pm

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Fatima Payman overstepped the mark, big time, on Monday night while quizzing Special Minister of State Don Farrell about staffing allocations. In a moment of fury, madness or brain fade, the WA senator linked her lack of staff to the attack on fellow MP Helen Haines, asking whether it would take a similar tragedy before she received the same staffing allocation that other senators and members on the crossbench enjoy.

After refusing to withdraw her unparliamentary remark, Payman apologised to Haines a couple of days later. It was a stunningly inappropriate comparison to make. But the fact she overstepped doesn’t mean she was wrong.

It’s not just Payman who is suffering. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has similar staffing issues. One Nation has six MPs in parliament and just four advisers, while the Greens, with 11 MPs, have 17 advisers (this is in addition to the five electorate staff that every MP has). Hanson is being punished for being Hanson, leading a party and advocating policies that Albanese abhors.

The two women have formed what can only be described as an unlikely alliance to try to pressure the prime minister to change his mind, but it’s not working at the moment.

Payman’s staff are having to work longer hours with fewer resources than either a senator from a major party – where the party infrastructure and resources can help meet a politician’s ever-growing workload – or the other crossbench senators – who have extra, better paid........

© The Sydney Morning Herald