PM warns against faith-based political movements as Payman hints at next move

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned against faith-based political parties and argued one that advocated for Muslim Australians would only isolate the religious group, as rebel senator Fatima Payman hints at a new political movement.

Payman, who on Thursday quit the Labor to sit on the crossbench, said “stay tuned” and “anything can happen” when asked if she wanted to collaborate with a coalition of Islamic community groups planning to run against Labor MPs in seats with large Muslim populations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaking on Friday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

On Thursday as Coalition leader Peter Dutton came under fire for comments about Muslim candidates, Payman said she had no immediate plans to create a new party. However, she has been working closely with election strategist Glenn Druery and met the network of Islamic organisations.

The prime minister on Friday echoed the view of NDIS Minister Bill Shorten from earlier this week warning any faith-based party would risk social cohesion and Australia’s secularised political culture.

“My party has in around the cabinet and ministerial tables people who are Catholic, people who are Uniting Church, people who are Muslim, people who are Jewish,” Albanese said. “That is the way that we’ve conducted politics in Australia.

“And it seems to me as well, beyond obvious that it is not in the interest of smaller minority groups to isolate themselves.”

Senator Fatima Payman during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Payman said on Thursday she felt ridiculed by her colleagues talking among themselves and to journalists about her claim that she was being guided by God and praying frequently before crossing the floor to vote on a motion to recognise Palestinian statehood, which sparked a dramatic political crisis and her exit from the Labor Party.

“Just because you are a person of faith, doesn’t mean you don’t have principles or that you would impose your beliefs on people who don’t hold those beliefs,” she said in a long interview with OnePath Network, a group to which Payman donates and which has labelled the Barbie film dangerous because it promotes feminism and homosexuality.

In the interview, Payman used Arabic terms such as “alhamdulillah”, which means “praise be to God” but is commonly used by non-Muslim Arabic speakers as well as non-devout Muslims.

Asked how she managed to speak articulately in press conferences despite being under immense pressure, she said: “My secret is, I don’t have any fancy media training… But also just praying that God almighty uses me as a vessel in the best way that he sees fit.”

She said she had been “pigeonholed” as a senator only focused on religious issues, arguing she would never impose her faith-based views on others.

Payman added that she was accountable to her voters but said it was crucial to “seek the pleasure of God and make sure we are doing right by him”.

Payman met a coalition of Islamic political groups last month. Senior figures associated with the groups have said it is planning a challenge with teal-style tactics to a group of mostly western Sydney Labor MPs who it claims have failed to stand up for Palestinian rights. In a statement, The Muslim Vote said it was not a political party or religious campaign, but rather a political campaign.

In the OnePath Network interview, Payman said those MPs should “listen to the people who voted you in” and “sooner or later [voters] will think about replacing you”.

Meanwhile, Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja on Thursday accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of Islamophobia in relation to comments Dutton made about Payman quitting the government.

“If [Albanese] is in a minority government in the next term of parliament, it will include the Greens, it’ll include the teals, it’ll include Muslim candidates from western Sydney, it will be a disaster,” Dutton said.

In response, Khawaja wrote on X: “As a Muslim who grew up in Western Sydney I find this comment from someone who is running for PM an absolute disgrace.

“Bigotry at its finest. Fueling Islamophobia from the very top.”

Labor minister Ed Husic, a Muslim, said on Instagram: “Um, Pete? Newsflash. There’s not only been a Muslim candidate from western Sydney for more than a decade now, there’s also two of us who serve as minister.”

Reports on Friday questioning whether the Afghan-born Payman was a dual citizen, and thereby ineligible to sit in parliament, provoked criticism from independent senator David Pocock, who called it a “smear campaign”.

“Raising questions about her eligibility under section 44 by people from the same party who took responsibility for ensuring the eligibility of her candidacy and now are too cowardly to put their name to the allegations is such grubby politics,” he said.

Payman has documented the steps she has taken to cancel her Afghan citizenship, but there is no diplomatic channel to the Taliban-controlled nation.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.