Exiled Labor Senator Fatima Payman launches own party
Exiled Labor Senator Fatima Payman has cemented her position as Australia’s answer to a pro-Palestine Pauline Hanson.
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Exiled Labor Senator Fatima Payman has cemented her position as Australia’s answer to a pro-Palestine Pauline Hanson announcing she will form her own party to be called Australia’s Voice.
Announcing she was leaving the ALP in July, Senator Payman pledged to be a “true voice” for Palestine and warned that her “conscience leaves me no choice” but to strike out as an independent.
Speaking in Canberra on Wednesday afternoon, she stressed hers was not a Muslim political party but agreed her split with the Labor Party was sparked over the war in the Middle East.
“Australians are fed up with the major parties having a duopoly, a stranglehold over our democracy,” she said.
“If we need to drag the two major parties kicking and screaming to do what needs to be done, we will do it.”
The WA senator left the Labor Party after a disagreement with Labor’s position on Gaza.
She said the Labor Party has “lost its way” and she was forming a political party to run candidates at the next election.
“So many of you have told me with emotions in your hearts, we need something different,” she said.
“We need a voice. It is this cry for change that has brought us here today. Because we can no longer sit by while our voices are drowned out by the same old politics. It’s time to stand up, to rise together and to take control of our future.
“And so it is with great humility and deep responsibility that I announce the formation of Australia’s Voice, a new political party for the disenfranchised, the unheard, and those yearning for real change.”
Negative gearing and housing affordability focus
Senator Payman conceded there was no current policy platform which would “come in time” but she was focused on housing affordability.
“All you have to do is look back at a few of my speeches since becoming an independent, whether that’s negative gearing and capital gains tax in terms of housing affordability,” she said.
“Whether it’s looking at our aged care reform bills or whether it’s looking at early childhood education, making sure that parents and families are able to put food on the table while ensuring their kids get a good education.
“So there’s lots to look at.”
She then quoted both Gough Whitlam and Robert Menzies, political heroes of the Labor Party and the Liberal Party respectively.
“I’m reminded of the quote by the great Gough Whitlam,” she said.
“There are some people who are so frightened to put a foot forward, to put a foot wrong, that they won’t put a foot forward.
“This comment was made in 1985 and applies so much to the current Labor Party, who has lost its way.
“Australia’s Voice believes in a system where people come first, where your concerns are not just heard, but acted upon.
“We reject the status quo that serves the powerful and ignores the rest, the forgotten people.
“As Robert Menzies put it, Australia’s Voice is here to build a future where every Australian, regardless of their background, their colour, their faith or circumstances, have a voice that matters. This is more than a party. It is a movement for a fairer, more inclusive Australia.
“Together we will hold our leaders accountable and ensure that your voice, Australia’s voice, will never be silenced.”
Payman slams ‘big blokes’ in Labor Party
Senator Payman quit the ALP in July slamming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his chief of staff as “two big blokes” who hauled her into a disciplinary meeting at the Lodge to suspend her from the ALP caucus without allowing her to bring a support person.
She has now joined forces with so-called preference whisperer Glenn Druery, who she has brought in as her chief of staff.
She was suspended indefinitely by the Prime Minister, 61, after she vowed to cross the floor again if necessary on the ABC Insiders program.
“It felt quite intimidating to be there with the Prime Minister and his chief of staff, you know, two big blokes, I guess, and just me,” she told ABC Radio National.
Unionists have long campaigned for the right of workers to bring a support person to employment meetings, but Senator Payman said this was not offered to her at the meeting despite Mr Albanese organising his own witness in the form of chief of staff Tim Gartrell.
“And at that meeting, he gave me the decision of being suspended indefinitely,” she said.
“And suggested that, you know, if I do not want to follow corporate solidarity and come back inside the tent, then I must consider giving up the position that the late that I got elected because the ALP was in front of my name, and that was his suggestion.
“And after leaving that meeting, I had to start thinking about my future and what’s to come.”
Senator fled Afghanistan as a child
Senator Payman, who was born in Afghanistan, said that “unlike my colleagues, I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of injustice”.
“My family didn’t flee from a war-torn country to come here as refugees for me to remain silent when I see atrocities inflicted on innocent people,” she said.
“Witnessing the government’s indifference … makes me question the direction the party is taking.”
Senator Payman said her “conscience leaves me no choice” but to leave Labor.
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions,” she said.
“It is a crisis that pierces the heart and soul calling us to action with a sense of urgency and moral clarity.
“We have all seen the bloodied images of young children losing limbs, being amputated with our anaesthetics and starving as Israel continues its onslaught.
“I am a representative of the diverse and vibrant communities of Western Australia, I’m compelled to be their true voice.”
Senator Payman, who will keep her $233,000 salary as an independent, said she had received death threats and abusive emails.
“This has been the most difficult decision of my life and put me in a tough position I cannot compromise on,” she said.
“It is a matter of principle and when I voted across the floor, it was my own conscience.”
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