Fatima Payman

Fatima Payman (born 1995) is an Australian politician who has served as a senator for Western Australia since 2022.

Payman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and lived for three years in Pakistan before migrating to Perth with her family in 2003. She attended the Australian Islamic College and studied pharmacy at university. Payman was president of Young Labor WA and an organiser for the United Workers Union, before becoming an electorate officer for West Australian Labor politician Pierre Yang. At the 2022 Australian federal election, Payman was elected to the Australian Senate as a senator for Western Australia.

She was the third-youngest member to have been elected to the Senate and the first Muslim member of parliament to wear a hijab.

In May and June of 2024, Payman's statements in support of Palestine during the Israel–Hamas war and criticism of the Albanese government's response to the war brought her out of step with the rest of the government. On 25 June 2024, Payman crossed the floor to support an Australian Greens resolution to recognise a Palestinian state, leading to her being indefinitely suspended from the Labor caucus. On 4 July 2024, Payman quit the Labor Party to sit as an independent.

Early life and education
Payman's grandfather was a member of parliament in Afghanistan.

Fatima Payman was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1995 the eldest of four children, and fled the Taliban for Pakistan with her family when she was five years old. Her father arrived in Australia via boat in 1999 and spent time in immigration detention, after which he worked as a security guard, kitchen hand and taxi driver, so he could afford to sponsor the migration of his wife and four children. The rest of the family arrived in Australia in 2003, when she was eight, and settled in Perth. Once in Australia, her mother started a business giving driving lessons. In 2018, her father died of leukemia.

Payman graduated from the Australian Islamic College in Perth, where she was head girl, in 2013. She attended the University of Western Australia, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology and a Graduate Diploma of Pharmaceutical Science. According to Payman, she was intent on pursuing a career in medicine but diverged into politics.

Political career
Payman joined the United Workers Union in 2018 as an organiser and was president of Young Labor WA. She recalled her observation of her father's experiences of workplace abuse and exploitation as a main motivation for joining the two organisations. She has worked as a program coordinator at the Edmund Rice Centre WA and as electorate officer for Pierre Yang. She was listed as a board member of the Australian Islamic College as of 2022.

2022 election
Payman was third on the Labor Party's ticket for the Senate at the 2022 Australian federal election and thus not expected to win a seat. She intended to use the 2022 election campaign as "practice" before seriously running in 2025.

Payman was naturalised as an Australian citizen in 2005, although this did not automatically revoke her Afghan citizenship according to Afghan law. The 1992 High Court ruling Sykes v Cleary in regards to Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia determined that a political candidate must take "all reasonable steps" to renounce other citizenships. Payman says she approached the Afghanistan embassy in Australia in October 2021 to renounce her Afghan citizenship, and that the embassy could not proceed with the formal process because it had no contact with the new Taliban government following the 2021 Taliban offensive. The Labor Party received legal advice that Payman was nevertheless still eligible to be elected, deeming that she had taken "all reasonable steps" to renounce her Afghan citizenship. She noted that the Afghan Embassy in Australia did not know whether the departments and officers responsible for processing her application in Kabul even existed.

At the 2022 Australian federal election, Payman won the sixth and final Senate vacancy after a swing of 6.92% to Labor and a 9.24% swing against the Liberal party in Western Australian Senate voting. Her election was the first time the ALP won three Senate seats in WA since the Senate had been expanded in 1984. Elected at age 27, she is the third youngest Senator in Australian history and is currently the youngest serving Senator. She has said her priorities include "getting more people from diverse backgrounds involved in politics, improving early childhood education, and climate change". She has also said she wants to "normalise hijab wearing". In 2022, Payman was awarded "Australian Muslim Role Model of the Year".

Crossing the floor and move to the crossbench
In a May 2024 speech to the Senate, Payman broke ranks with many members of the governing Labor Party and accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, criticised the Australian government for failing to sufficiently respond to Israel's alleged war crimes in the Israel–Hamas war, and called for sanctions and divestment against Israel. She concluded her speech by remarking "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". Payman's speech was noted by The Guardian as a "significant rupture with the Labor party position". On 17 June 2024 Payman wrote an article in Al Jazeera English supportive of recognition of Palestine by Australia and argued "Such a move would support the peace efforts, not undermine them, as some have argued". On 25 June 2024, Payman crossed the floor to vote in favour of a resolution supporting Australian recognition of Palestinian statehood, voting with the crossbench against the government and opposition. Payman stated "My decision to cross the floor was the most difficult decision I have had to make". She then stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees and was suspended from caucus for the remainder of that parliamentary sitting week. Later, on 30 June 2024, Payman was suspended indefinitely from the Labor caucus after stating in an interview that she would cross the floor again if a similar resolution was before the Senate and can no longer participate in any parliamentary meetings of the caucus. Albanese said she can return if she "respects the caucus and members". On 1 July, Payman stated in a Facebook post that she had been "exiled" from the party, that she would abstain from voting in the senate for the rest of the week, and that "some members are attempting to intimidate [her] into resigning from the Senate".

Payman received support for crossing the floor from the Labor Friends of Palestine, who stated Payman's actions were "entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy". The Australian National Imams Council and Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt both praised Payman's act as courageous. On 3 July 2024, the Leichhardt branch of the Labor Party, which is within Albanese's electorate of Grayndler, passed a motion supporting Payman. Five other Labor branches had also passed similar motions. Former Labor politician Harry Quick, who was expelled from the party after crossing the floor in 2007, stated his admiration for Payman and urged her to not "bend or waver".

Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong criticised Payman's decision, stating that party disagreements should be handled "internally", and that she had voted against same-sex marriage in the past despite her own personal support of it, but had voted against it in keeping with party policy. On 1 July 2024, Albanese said that Payman's actions had disrupted the government's messaging "the day before the most significant assistance that has been given to working people in a very long period of time", referring to the stage three tax cuts and energy bill relief which came into effect that day. Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley stated that Payman crossing the floor was a sign of Anthony Albanese's "weak leadership".

Labor MP Anne Aly, who had often disagreed with party positions regarding the Gaza conflict, said in an interview that she did not agree with Payman's approach. Referring to Payman's abstention on Labor's proposed amendment to a Greens motion calling for recognition of a Palestinian state, Aly said "I choose to do things in a way I think will make a material difference on the ground to people in Palestine. Fatima chooses to do it her way". Payman said her choice to abstain on Labor's amendment and to vote for the final Greens motion was consistent with Labor's platform which endorsed a two-state solution and made Palestinian recognition "an important priority". Aly said that Payman "could have voted for [the Labor amendment] if she held Labor values".

Michelle Ananda-Rajah criticised her by saying that there had been "numerous opportunities" for Payman to raise her concerns internally.

On 4 July 2024, Payman quit the Labor Party to sit as an independent in the Senate. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe praised Payman as being on the "right side of history". Labor party president Wayne Swan stated that Payman's defection would "empower Labor’s opponents on the far right". Upon returning to WA on 6 July, Payman was met by a cheering crowd of supporters at Perth Airport.

On 18 July, The Guardian reported two resignations among Multicultural Labor, a superregional branch of WA Labor. The group's treasurer and vice-president had quit the Labor Party on 4 July "in protest" at the treatment of Fatima Payman. The resigning vice-president, Adam Demir, called the party a "spineless jellyfish".