Former Labor senator Fatima Payman launches new political party called Australia’s Voice

Renegade Labor senator Fatima Payman has launched her own political party and claimed she has already received interest from former candidates.

The first-term senator sensationally defected from Labor in July after she crossed the floor while supporting a Greens motion recognising the state of Palestine.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Senator Payman said Australia’s Voice would challenge the two major parties, which she said had a “duopoly” in politics.

“It’s a party based on what Australians want and what I’ve been hearing from Australians,” she said.

“They are fed up of the major parties, the two major parties, playing politics, and being afraid of making any form of progressive reform when it comes to bills that will ease the pressures on Australians.”

Speaking to media, she quoted former prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Robert Menzies and hit out at Labor for losing its way.

Quoting Mr Whitlam, she said: “There are some people who are so frightened to put a foot forward, to put a foot wrong, that they won’t put a foot forward.

“This comment was made in 1985 and implies so much the current Labor Party who has lost its way.”

Asked how Australia’s Voice would differentiate itself from the Greens, Senator Payman said while she admired the minor party’s “passion,” she’d heard from constituents that the party went “too far”.

“When it comes to practicality or pragmatism, there needs to be that level of engagement with what’s possible and what can be achieved,” she said.

While the announcement was light on policy details, she said voters could glean hints from her previous comments about negative gearing, capital gains reform, aged care reform and housing affordability.

Senator Payman said candidate selection for Australia’s Voice would be based on “merit” and be announced in due course, however she said there had been interest from “disenfranchised former Labor candidates,” as well as the National Party.

“The candidate selection will occur in due course. It will be based on merit and value alignment when it comes to selecting those candidates,” she said.

“We are not ruling out anyone, again, Australia’s Voice is for each and every person, and we welcome candidates.”

She also confirmed she would allow party members to make conscience votes on “matters that are important”.

“Obviously, as a party, we would have value alignment, but at the same time, if there’s something that even if I disagree with them on, it would be important to appreciate that,” she said.

Indigenous affairs would also make up her policy platform, she said, adding that the party’s name, which bears similarities to Labor’s failed referendum to install a Voice in parliament, was chosen following engagement with First Nations people.

“We’ve consulted with elders from that community who actually feel like the current government is not representing them and they are being treated as electoral poison,” she said.

“I’ve heard first hand from First Nations elders that you know they didn’t realise and would never have fathomed that they would be far worse off post a failed referendum.

“We cannot afford to leave Indigenous Affairs and Indigenous issues off the agenda just because there was a failed referendum”.

Prior to her official announcement, Senator Payman taunted Anthony Albanese, who told the Australian Financial Review that she should give back her senate seat to Labor and run “under the banner of her new political party”.

In response, Senator Payman said she would consider running a candidate in the Prime Minister’s inner-western Sydney seat of Grayndler.