WA Senator Fatima Payman is set to leave Labor and with the ‘cat out of the bag’, Samantha Maiden sees an exit similar to Pauline Hanson

In an astounding, similar chain of events, an ‘exiled’ Labor Senator could soon be a Pauline Hanson of the Left, writes Samantha Maiden.

Senator Fatima Payman. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese let the cat out of the bag in question time.

WA Senator Fatima Payman is set to quit the Labor Party after a fight over Palestine.

Sound familiar? Just like Pauline Hanson did all those years ago, when she was pre-selected as a Liberal MP, got dumped and then elected anyway before emerging as a national political phenomenon.

Sure, that comparison will make Senator Hanson choke on her vegemite toast, but the parallels are striking.

Senator Fatima Payman during Question Time. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Prime Minister’s attempt to gazump the young senator by announcing her expected departure only served to underline his sensitivity to the suggestion she’s walking all over him with a series of carefully staged conflicts over Palestine.

The purpose? To raise her profile ahead of the inevitable speech to parliament declaring she’s quitting to become an independent.

She’s even been talking to the preference whisperer Glenn Druery.

When asked to cool it after the PM initially tried to play nice when she crossed the floor, she upped the ante by appearing on national television on Sunday on the Insiders program.

Many within Labor believe that day will arrive on Thursday, shortly before question time, before parliament rises for the winter break.

“Senator Payman, of course, has made a decision to place herself outside the Labor Party, that is a decision that she made. I expect further announcements in the coming days,” Mr Albanese said.

“Which will explain exactly what the strategy has been over for more than a month.”

In other words, the Prime Minister thinks the softly spoken senator from Perth’s northern suburbs has been planning this all along.

Senator Fatima Payman may leave Labor. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

And he’s dirty about it. The real question is why it took the ALP so long to work out what she was up to when they weren’t paying attention.

She now says she’s been “exiled” and excluded by her Labor colleagues.

“I have been removed from caucus meetings, committees, internal group chats and whip’s bulletins,” she said.

Two weeks ago, most Australians had never heard of the young WA senator, a self-described Australian Muslim with cultural roots from Afghanistan.

For the two previous contests, the unwinnable third spot on the WA Senate ticket was held by Mark Reed, a former strategic director for WA Premier Mark McGowan.

He must be kicking himself he didn’t run again because the McGowan mania in WA ended up delivering a Senate spot to a woman Labor never expected to win.

The first hijab-wearing Muslim senator in Australian history, Senator Payne is about to become even bigger news.

The Labor senator will be able to keep her $233,000-a-year salary if she quits the party over her support of Palestine. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Inevitably, that will involve the major parties and the media taking a closer look at this accidental senator.

Those that vetted her candidacy at Labor’s HQ insist she looked vanilla on paper.

She had deleted her social media by that stage and seemed bookish and nerdy anyway.

But she’s proving a surprise packet.

The Labor senator will be able to keep her $233,000-a-year salary if she quits the party over her support of Palestine and may spearhead a group of pro-Palestine candidates at the next election.

While some have suggested she may lead Islamic candidates, there probably isn’t a huge political base for religious-based parties of any description.

What there is a pile of votes for, fuelled by TikTok, is the youth vote that is riled up about Palestine.

And it’s Senator Payman’s links with pro-Palestine groups that is now set to come under scrutiny including her donations to an Islamic TV production house.

The One Path Network films and edits videos for its YouTube channel, including interviews with local sheikhs about Islamic teachings and current affairs and includes pro-Palestine videos calling for trade boycotts against Starbucks and McDonalds, claiming the companies have links with Israel.

Under the rules of the Senate register of interests, Senator Payman must declare any organisation that she supports if she is donating more than $300 a year. One of the organisations she declared includes the One Path Network.

The media company is already promoting videos hailing Senator Payman as “a hero” for standing up to “rats” in the mainstream media.

“They have no shame – Senator Fatima Payman took a stance that the world will remember. Palestine will be free!’’ the video states.

But it’s the group’s teachings on homosexuality and pop culture that are sent to raise eyebrows, with one video featuring a woman in a niqāb arguing that the Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie is “dangerous.”

In the video, the woman criticises the Barbie movie as dangerous because it includes “feminist propaganda” and homosexuality.

On YouTube, the video is titled ‘Muslim REACTS – Barbie is NOT what you think!!’

“Far from being a children’s film, this is a highly politicised film filled with messaging that is inappropriate for children, everything from crude sexual innuendos a plot around an existential crisis, homosexual references a transgender Barbie doll, and, of course, aggressive feminist propaganda,’’ the One Path network states.

“They are greeted by a world where men are perverts, police make sexual advances on women, and a world where men are in charge of everything.”

What does Senator Payman think about the existential threat of Barbie?

Despite donating the organisation that films all those slick TikToks, she wasn’t returning calls on Wednesday.

But it’s a fair bet that she will have plenty more to say in the coming days.