Government ministers are denying having any role in suggesting newly independent senator Fatima Payman has questions to answer about her citizenship. The West Australian senator has also directed strong words towards the Prime Minister as she considers her next steps after resigning from the Labor party.
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00:00We've heard from the Senator herself yesterday making these suggestions or allegations that
00:09she was treated in a less than favourable manner in terms of the response to her crossing
00:16the floor.
00:17This morning we have heard from the Prime Minister for the first time at length about
00:22his response to her recent defection from the Labor Party, becoming the first member
00:31to defect from Labor during this term.
00:35The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, backed in his government's response to this, saying
00:41that the party is open and transparent, and hitting back against some of the suggestions
00:47about intimidation or that sort of conduct in the conversations between him and Senator
00:56Payman.
00:57Take a listen.
00:58One of the things I find disappointing about Senator Payman is that the decision that she's
01:05taken, she has a right to take that decision.
01:08At no stage, no stage, did Senator Payman stand in the caucus and make any comments
01:15about the Middle East or about anything else, about West Australians or about anything else.
01:23This follows a report that Senator Fatima Payman had questions, suggesting Senator Fatima
01:32Payman had questions to answer over her citizenship.
01:36The suggestion in those reports in the News Corp papers being that her dual citizenship,
01:42her dual Australian-Afghan citizenship meant that she may not be eligible to sit in Parliament.
01:51Senator Payman had gone through the process of trying to renounce her Afghan citizenship
01:57before making her way to Parliament in 2022, but we then have heard from her, seen a statement
02:08from her at that time saying that she sought legal advice.
02:11She was unable to progress with that bid to renounce citizenship in Afghanistan because
02:17the Taliban is in power there, making the case that there's no connection between the
02:22embassy and the government in Afghanistan, meaning there's, as she sees it and as the
02:28legal advice presented to her supports, that there's no case for her to answer on that question.
02:37This morning we also heard from the Prime Minister in regards to this news that the
02:42group The Muslim Vote is going to put forward candidates in a number of Western Sydney seats
02:49that are currently safe Labor seats as well.
02:51The Prime Minister saying that he sees no real place for faith-based parties in Australian
02:58politics, the concern from him being that that would potentially create or exacerbate
03:05issues with social cohesion.