With reporting by Zahra Al Hilaly.
Senator Fatima Payman, who left the Labor Party in July to become an independent senator, has told Missing Perspectives that she believes Labor should reconsider its position on conscience votes.
“My late father was big on integrity and honesty and he would always tell me, his quote was, ‘Live life with a clear conscience and you have no one to fear’. And I felt that liberation, I felt that sense of shackles just dropping off me. But in terms of conscience votes, I really do think the Labor Party need to review their rules,” she says.
“You know, these are rules that were made 130 years ago that compel each and every member of the caucus to vote on a certain matter in unity and all as one without considering the nuances, the different perspectives, the opinions.”
“And if the Labor Party want to be truly representative of the modern day Australia that we’re living in, they do need to [be] allowing for conscience votes, especially in matters that are so deeply felt and widely felt in the community. It wasn’t a particular piece of legislation,” she says.
Senator Fatima Payman. Photo: Missing Perspectives
The 29-year-old was only five when she fled Afghanistan with her family, seeking refuge from the Taliban. Elected to the Senate in 2022 for a six-year term representing Western Australia, she became the first woman to wear a hijab in Australia’s parliament. She left the Labor Party in July, largely over the government’s refusal to immediately recognise Palestine as a state.
“It was a matter of conscience,” she says. “It was a matter of humanitarian advocacy and justice. It just didn’t feel right that they would be imposing that rule knowing that I look like me. I appeal to a particular cross -section within our society.
“You know, if you can’t have someone look like me but sound like them, you know, I can’t… You need to appreciate the diversity of voices and opinions that are brought to the table through your elected members. Otherwise, we’re no different to what we were 130 years ago, right?”
Senator Payman believes that in order to change the way politics is done, and to make it a safer environment for young women wanting to enter the space, we need to be able to accept voices of dissent. “Creating a safe space is accepting voices of dissent. It’s being able to hear the not too nice things about the way you’re conducting yourself or if it’s feedback to a government policy, government should be able to take it and not just brush it aside and tick a box because they’ve consulted you,” she says.
Senator Fatima Payman. Photo: Missing Perspectives
“And it definitely needs to be a more welcoming space where young voices are not just ignored,” she says, ensuring it’s also important that there isn’t “so-called tokenistic representation” at the same time.
“We hear far too often, especially in recent times, the shunning of university students using their civil liberties of protesting, of expressing their opinions and that’s in a respectful environment. Yes, it can be robust, but if we’re not allowing university settings to engage in those sort of robust discussions, well then what are those institutions for? It’s got to be more than just financial institutions, right?” she says.
“These students go out of their way to be able to foster change and engage in those debates and particularly women where already it’s tough being a woman in the society, let alone with all the different layers of identities we may carry.
“So I think there’s a long way to go and it requires a whole societal approach. It definitely starts with the way the government approaches its policy making spaces and continues this, you know… hopefully that would implement bringing on board younger people and listening to their voices, not just as tokens or a box-ticking exercise, but actually genuinely being interested in implementing the ideas.”