‘They told me to settle down, start a family’: Inside Fatima Payman’s rebellion

In a tell-all one year after quitting Labor, Fatima Payman reveals she was muzzled, sidelined and hospitalised after being caught between a hostile ALP machine and angry Muslim powerbrokers.

WA senator Fatima Payman in Leederville. Picture: Colin Murty

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Fatima Payman says she was micro­managed, sidelined and told to “settle down and start a family” by seniorLabor-aligned union figures, as Muslim powerbrokers in Western Australia warned her she would be cast out of the community unless she broke ranks and spoke out on ­Palestine.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian to mark one year since her defection from the ALP, the senator has revealed how internal and community ­forces led to her decision to cross the floor – a move she described as “liberating” but one that came at great personal cost.

According to Payman, the Albanese government and rank-and-file union members pres­sured her to stay silent, suppress dissent and toe the party line as public frustration mounted over Australia’s response to the war in Gaza.

At the same time, senior Islamic clerics, powerbrokers and pro-Palestinian activists in Perth privately told her that her credibility in the Muslim community was collapsing, and she would be isolated unless she publicly condemned Israel and challenged her party’s stance on formally recognising a two-state solution.

The competing demands – to stay silent or speak out – created what she describes as an impossible moral and political bind.

Behind the scenes, trusted staffers failed to carry out her instructions, her health deteriorated under the strain, her family faced harassment. Multiple Labor-aligned union figures, she alleged, even suggested she leave parliament altogether and “settle down” after her recent marriage.

‘Labor’s gag order, veiled threats’

The final catalyst came when a high-profile Ramadan fundraiser she had organised for the party – expected to draw 150 attendees – was quietly boycotted after Muslim leaders and activists turned against her. Within weeks, Payman crossed the Senate floor and cut ties with Labor, which triggered a seismic rupture inside federal caucus.

“I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, the community was furious. On the other hand, my caucus colleagues were telling me to be quiet, toe the party line, and have all my speeches double and triple-checked. I was being micro­managed and monitored. Every move was controlled,” she told The Australian.

The 30-year-old senator, a daughter of Afghan refugees and a former union organiser, said pressure from within Labor began mounting in early 2024 as public anger over Gaza intensified.

Senator Fatima Payman holds a press conference after crossing the floor. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

“Union executives, the same ones I campaigned with, suggested politics wasn’t for me, that I should consider stepping down, maybe settle down, start a family,” she said. “Would they have said that to a middle-aged, white male senator?”

Payman, who served as secretary of WA’s multicultural Labor branch before entering parliament, said internal ALP factions expected her to act as a bridge to Muslim voters but silenced her when she tried to raise community concerns.

“There was a deliberate effort to gag me. I wasn’t jaded like the others,” she said. “I wasn’t willing to play along.

“I joined the party on the promise we would be bold, we would honour our policy to recognise a Palestinian state.

“Yet when the moment came, we retreated.”

‘Debilitating migraines’

She said she began suffering from chronic health issues that ended with hospitalisation as the political and emotional toll intensified.

“I found myself hospitalised twice for debilitating migraine attacks,” she said. “I was put on blood pressure medication and I had to try to protect my family, who were being harassed and abused because they shared the same surname.”

The Ramadan fundraising event, which she planned to raise money for the ALP, with federal ministers boasted as “special guests”, included figures such as the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman.

Labor member for Perth Patrick Gorman. Picture: Mick Tsikas / AAP

“I was on my second day of my honeymoon when my office called and said they were receiving angry emails and complaints about the fundraiser from the community,” Payman said. “People were furious that I’d ask them to donate to Labor when Labor had abandoned them on Palestine.”

She said Labor staffers resisted her decision to postpone the fundraiser, arguing it would make the party “look bad”.

“I remember saying, ‘This isn’t about the party’s image … it’s about the fact no one’s going to show up.’”

The fundraiser was postponed. Gorman, who did not attend the rescheduled event, accused Payman of attempting to rewrite history.

“It is unsurprising Senator Payman is seeking to rewrite history and her own actions after her ‘party’ had an incredibly poor performance at the recent federal election,” he told The Australian.

‘I couldn’t trust my staff’

Payman also accused Labor headquarters of embedding staff in her office who were more loyal to party chiefs than to her, describing a collapse of trust in her team.

“They wouldn’t carry out basic instructions. I told them to respond to community emails, to pass on motions to ministers, and they just didn’t do it. It felt like they were there to keep an eye on me, not support me.”

Reflecting on her decision to cross the floor – the first such act by a Labor member in nearly three decades – she said she felt liberated for the first time in her political life.

“Walking across that Senate floor, I felt like the shackles had fallen off,” she said. “I could speak my truth. I was liberated. I could finally represent the people who elected me.”

Senator Fatima Payman crosses the floor to support senator Mehreen Faruqi’s motion to have the Senate recognise Palestine as a state at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

She dismissed suggestions she might have achieved more for her constituents had she remained in the party, revealing a senior cabinet minister privately urged her to stay silent and bide her time, hinting at a possible ministerial promotion in the next term.

Payman declined to identify this minister.

An independent senator and leader of Australia’s Voice, Payman said her priority was to represent West Australians without the constraints of party discipline.

‘Muslim revolt’

One of the strongest community interventions came in a letter from the president of the Arabian Heritage Association and Muslim Votes Matter delegate Nasser Alziyadat, who warned Payman that her hosting of an ALP fundraiser during Ramadan risked betraying her Muslim supporters.

The letter expressed outrage at the event and called for its cancellation, citing the presence of Gorman, one of several WA MPs who had voted against a Gaza ceasefire motion in parliament.

“We urge you to cancel the event out of respect for the 19,000 orphans in Gaza and the thousands who have lost one parent. Your decision to cancel would demonstrate solidarity with the oppressed and uphold the principles of justice and humanity that our community holds dear,” the letter stated.

The Australian can also reveal influential Perth mosque imam Muhammad Shakeeb warned Payman that unless she ramped up her public criticism of Israel, he would push to cancel the fundraiser.

The veiled threat left her isolated and conflicted during her four-day honeymoon in Bali.

Hiba Elfarra and Nasser Mashni, from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, appear on The Balanced Narrative podcast, hosted by imam Muhammad Shakeeb. Picture: The Balanced Narrative/YouTube

Activist Hiba Elfarra, from the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, also lobbied grassroots organisations in Perth to boycott the event, saying they would be “blacklisted” if they attended.

Sources say Elfarra told local groups that attending the Iftar fundraiser would be seen as “betrayal” and warned them that APAN was willing to “blacklist” them within the pro-Palestinian community.

Elfarra and APAN’s president, Nasser Mashni, appeared on Imam Shakeeb’s The Balanced Narrative podcast last week in an episode where they discussed how “Israel oppresses Palestinians”.

APAN did not respond when approached by The Australian.

Despite the personal and political risks, Senator Payman said she had no regrets: “It was the best decision I ever made. I can look back and tell my future children I stood up for what I believed in, even when it cost me everything.”