Independent WA senator Fatima Payman has sparked backlash after asking whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was waiting for her to suffer a Helen Haines-style attack before approving her request for extra staff.
Payman made the comments late on Monday night as she pressed Special Minister of State Don Farrell over her long-running bid for additional adviser-level staff.
She said she had been seeking two extra staff members for almost two years and questioned why other crossbench senators had received more support while her own request remained unresolved.
Under parliamentary rules, Albanese has the final say on staffing allocations for independents and minor parties.
Payman suggested she was being treated differently because she left the Labor Party to sit as an independent.
'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.
'Am I being made an example of?'
Farrell said he would raise the issue with Albanese again.
Fatima Payman (pictured) refused to withdraw the comments related to Helen Haines
Payman said she was tired of waiting while her staff struggled to keep up.
'I've been raising it for two years,' she said.
'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,' she said.
'Is the Prime Minister waiting for something like what happened to Helen Haines to occur in my office, or to me, before he takes our request seriously?' she said.
The comment immediately prompted backlash.
'I personally think that's an outrageous suggestion, Senator Payman,' Farrell replied.
Committee chair Karen Grogan also intervened, calling the remark an 'outrageous statement' and urging Payman to reconsider it.
Payman invoked the Helen Haines (pictured) incident when asking about extra advisers
Farrell then asked Payman to withdraw the suggestion.
'I suggest you go further and withdraw that suggestion about the Prime Minister's motivation because it's absolutely not the case,' he said.
But Payman refused.
'With all due respect, I haven't made any accusation,' she said.
When Grogan responded, 'I think you just did,' Payman stood her ground.
'I mean, you can take it as an accusation, Minister. But once you've discussed it with the Prime Minister, and if he thinks that's an accusation, then I'll withdraw it,' she said.
The standoff escalated when Payman accused Albanese of deliberately delaying a decision on her staffing request.
Payman was pressing Minister Don Farrell (pictured) over her requests for further advisers
'I've been waiting for two years, Chair, and I am tired of looking my staff in the eyes and telling them they'll just have to deal with this because the Prime Minister is petty and is taking it out on me,' she said.
Grogan condemned the comment and said she would be 'delighted' to raise the matter 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 said.
The comments came amid a series of serious threats directed at the independent senator.
A Queensland man last week admitted to six charges of using a carriage service to menace or harass Payman, including allegedly saying during a phone call that he hoped she would be hit by a truck.
The senator has also been the target of death threats.
A Victorian man pleaded guilty last year after sending an email warning that there was 'a bullet' reserved for her.
Payman's office has previously said it referred more than 100 threatening or abusive incidents to the Australian Federal Police.
