Former ALP senator Fatima Payman announces new political party

Payman told the media during a press conference she will run Senate candidates in all states and some in the lower house.

She said Australia’s Voice is a centrist party and will stand for “all Australians” to reflect the needs of “the disenfranchised and the unheard”.

“[So many have felt] a growing frustration, a feeling of being left behind. Of shouting into the void. Only for their concerns to fall on deaf ears,” Payman said. 

“So many of you have told me with emotions in your hearts, we need something different. We need a voice. It is this cry for change that has brought us here today. 

“Because we can no longer sit by while our voices are drowned out by the same old politics.”

She confirmed she had not courted any crossbenchers yet and was considering her options.

Payman said her party will focus on policies regarding housing affordability, aged care reform and early childhood education.

“The policy platform will come in time, and I’m very excited to publicly announce them in due course,” she added.

In a message on her newly-launched party website, Payman said: “If we have to drag the two major parties kicking and screaming to do what needs to be done, we will.”

Payman quit the Labor party in July to sit in the Senate as an independent.

She told media she left the ALP because she did not align with their views or legislative agenda on climate change or position on the conflict in Gaza.

“I see no middle ground and my conscience leaves me no choice,” she said at the time.