A Labor defector has asked whether the prime minister is making an example of her by deliberately palming off her pleas for more staff.
WA Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor in mid-2024 to sit as an independent and was granted no additional staff.
An application for more has sat idle for almost two years, she revealed during Senate estimates hearings on Monday evening, adding that she believed staff requests for newer MPs and senators have since been accommodated.
"Has the prime minister refused to make a decision on my request, because unlike all the other defectors, I defected from the Labor Party?" she asked Special Minister of State Don Farrell.
"Am I being made an example of?"
Senator Payman said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had been sitting on her application while granting more staff to senators Lidia Thorpe, Tammy Tyrrell and David Van as well as MP Andrew Gee, who had quit the Greens, Jacqui Lambie Network, Liberals and Nationals respectively.
Newer parliamentarians' requests had also been processed speedily, including for Greens leader David Shoebridge, who only took that post in late September, she said.
"I implore you and the prime minister to please look into the fact that my staff are burning out - they can't take this any longer," Senator Payman told Senator Farrell.
The ex-Labor senator on Monday connected the staffing issue to personal security in light of the alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines on October 19.
MPs' personal staff are not responsible for their security.
"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?" Senator Payman said, in a remark she was asked to withdraw.
"I've been waiting two years, and I am tired of looking in my staff's eyes and saying you just have to deal with this because the prime minister is petty and is taking it out on me."
On October 22, a Queensland man avoided jail after sending Senator Payman, who is Muslim, emails that called for her to get hit by a truck, among a slew of other abuses.
In November 2025, a 51-year-old Victorian man was sentenced to an 18-month community jail term for making racist death threats against the WA independent.
Senator Payman in September unexpectedly joined One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to call for a revamp to how politicians are allocated personal staff.
Modelling showed One Nation had 0.83 staff per parliamentarian, compared to Labor's 4.09 and the coalition's 1.47.
The two politicians had erupted into a blazing row on the Senate floor in 2024 after Senator Hanson tried to probe her counterpart's citizenship.
Independent MP Dai Le said at the time their new united front was a testament to challenging a system that was "fundamentally broken".
