View From The Hill: Fatima Payman promises PM ‘a full body contact competition’

By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

When Senator Fatima Payman quit Labor over Gaza, she not only delivered a blow to the government, she also got under Anthony Albanese’s skin.

So he’s refused to give the now crossbencher as many staff as, for example, fellow independent senator David Pocock, from the ACT.

With Payman readying to unveil her own political party this week, Albanese on Monday told the Australian Financial Review she should “test democratic support for her actions by contesting the next election herself” under her party’s banner.

Payman, from Western Australia, who doesn’t have…

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