Fatima Payman: Newly Independent senator may be in line for extra staff

Newly independent senator Fatima Payman could be in line for an extra two staff because she quit the Labor Party — but she is at the mercy of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to get the additional support.

She will also have to hire at least five new staff and work out the practicalities of running an independent political office such as how to keep track of constituents without access to the central electoral roll databases the major parties maintain.

The first-term senator quit Labor last week over her frustration with the party’s approach to Palestinian statehood and the Gaza conflict.

On Monday she pledged to visit “every single town” in the State to find out what was important to the voters she will represent for another four years.

Political strategists say she now has to decide how she wants to position herself across a broad range of issues while dealing with the practicalities of setting up a fresh office from scratch.

Notre Dame University politics professor Martin Drum said a positive of being in a political party was they provided their MPs with expert advice around legislation.

“That’s much trickier when you’re an independent or in a very small party; you have to do all your own research — and they’ve got some resources in their own office, but obviously not the same resources that would come from a minister’s office or a shadow minister’s office,” he said.

“So you’re dealing with a complete reset of your staff and at the same time, you don’t have the same advice on a whole range of issues.

“I think that she will find it a challenging and isolating experience.”

Precedent suggests Senator Payman would be allocated an extra two staff — known as personal staff — beyond what she was entitled to as a Labor backbencher.

Her Labor-aligned existing staff are in the process of departing by mutual agreement, as The West revealed last week.

Most minor party and independent members are given additional staff as a recognition of the workload involved in scrutinising every piece of legislation, particularly for senators since the Government does not have a majority in the upper house.

But it is Mr Albanese’s prerogative to allocate these positions.

He drew the ire of the new “teal” independents after the election when he moved to cut the number of staff allocated to crossbenchers after it had crept up on Scott Morrison’s watch.

Figures tabled in Senate estimates show that in April, crossbench senators Pauline Hanson, Ralph Babet, Malcolm Roberts, Tammy Tyrell, David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe had two extra staffers on top of their five electorate officers.

Senator Jacqui Lambie had three additional staffers, with the third only appointed until the Royal Commission into defence and veterans suicide wrapped up.

In the lower house, the independents who were elected in 2022 were allocated one extra staffer while Helen Haines, Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie and Andrew Gee all had two.

Senator David Van, who left the Liberal Party amid allegations of misbehaviour that are still under investigation, has no additional staff.

The Government increased the number of electorate staff every parliamentarian could hire from four to five last year to alleviate workloads.

Mr Albanese’s office declined to say whether he would allocate Senator Payman extra staff, and she did not respond to a request for comment.

Redbridge pollster Kos Samaras said if Senator Payman wanted to achieve long-term success, she had to build a narrative beyond the issue of the conflict in the Middle East.

Younger people, particularly in outer suburban areas, had become very disenchanted with the major parties, feeling economically abandoned and ignored, Redbridge research over six months of speaking with Senator Payman’s generation has found.

“There’s a new class of working class in this country and it is one that is extremely diverse and lacks a political voice,” Mr Samaras said.

“If just that’s where she chooses to go, I think she’ll have plenty to work with.”

Senator Payman said people who had voted for a Labor Government were telling her it wasn’t “serving their best interests” anymore.

“They voted for a change in government, they wanted to see values of justice, equality and freedom upheld and they’re just not seeing that,” she told ABC TV.