Election 2025: Fatima Payman targets Labor seats ahead of federal election

Fatima Payman became a star guest in one of Labor’s safest seats in Victoria, as the former ALP senator ramps up her campaigns across the nation.

Fatima Payman at the Dandenong night markets in Melbourne.

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Fatima Payman has received a celebrity reception in Victoria’s largest Afghan municipality as she ramps up her campaign in all five mainland states for crucial Senate seats ahead of the federal election.

The West Australian senator and leader of Australia’s Voice Party was the star guest on Wednesday at an Eid festival at Dandenong, in Melbourne’s outer east, where she is said to have been greeted by scores of people who welcomed the idea of toppling Labor in the marginal heavy Muslim seat of Bruce, held by the Labor MP Julian Hill.

Senator Payman, who has become closely involved with the Muslim Votes Matter movement, spent a day in Victoria before jetting off to NSW to campaign in Bankstown, another safe Labor seat that’s home to swaths of Muslim voters.

Senator Payman, who launched Australia’s Voice after quitting Labor in July last year, is not up for re-election in 2025 but will travel the country to campaign alongside her candidates.

The party wants to target voters disillusioned with the Albanese government’s stance on the Middle East and use the Gaza conflict to accelerate its base support.

In Victoria, she attended the Dandenong Eid event with former Greens candidate and Muslim community worker Moham­ed El Masri. He spec­tacularly resigned from the Greens in March after seeing the way Senator Payman had stood up for human rights and was later announced as the Senate candidate for Victoria.

Labor has held the seat of Bruce since 1996, but Senator Payman said the safest seats “should be scared” as constituents voiced their concerns over immigration and visa issues.

With a margin of 6.6 per cent and a population of more than 25,000 Muslim residents, Senator Payman said she felt hopeful that the seat could swing against Labor. “Things are shifting in Victoria and right across the country. People are frustrated with the cost of living, with government inaction on housing, immigration and climate change, with leaders dodging the hard conversations,” Senator Payman told The Australian.

“In the past year especially, I’ve seen a real breakdown in trust. Communities feel ignored, especially when it comes to ­issues like Palestine, housing, and climate.

“Social cohesion does suffer when people feel silenced or dismissed. But I also see incredible strength and solidarity on the ground.”

Senator Payman said she was “overwhelmed” with the support she had received by the Afghan constituents at the Dandenong Eid event. “It’s those safe seats (like Bruce) that should be scared because people are waking up to the ­reality on the ground. They feel like they’ve been taken for granted for far too long; I’ve actually heard quite a lot of people say the Labor Party has made so many promises to us but haven’t delivered,” she said.

“Especially when it comes to visa issues, visa queries and immigration. It’s been quite a hot topic in this electorate, which just indicates that people are no longer sympathetic to politics.”

Senator Payman was pictured flipping burgers at the Dandenong night markets which hosted the Eid festival event, with the owner of the BBQ Meats stall telling The Australian she became the highlight of the event.

“She was greeted by scores of people who wanted to take photos and speak with her and her candidates,” Fawaz Saraya said.

“She came in with two of her Senate candidates and she was very popular. She spoke with members of the community and she came to our stall where she asked to flip some burgers. She was really great.”

Australia’s Voice has already publicly announced four Senate candidates who will run in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, with the candidate for NSW yet to be announced.

On Wednesday, Senator Payman blasted Peter Dutton and the Coalition in a video message for indicating they would welcome the “war criminal” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Australia is about to make history for all the wrong reasons. Peter Dutton wants to welcome an accused war criminal into our country,” she said.

“Imagine if this was (Vladimir) Putin, imagine if this was (Bashar) Assad … Would they get the same warm welcome or is there one rule for some and another for others?”