Labor Party figures backgrounding against Senator Fatima Payman, who formally defected from the party yesterday, has angered fellow crossbencher David Pocock.
“Senior Labor figures” quoted in The Australian raised concerns about Senator Payman’s Afghan citizenship after she quit the party and refused to hand the seat back, instead moving to the crossbench.
Senator Payman declared her citizenship before the election and was supported by Labor as a candidate and has declared she made representations to renounce her dual citizenship, but the renouncement couldn’t be formalised because of the Taliban government.
She declared she had received legal advice affirming that she was eligible to contest as a candidate due to the “impossibility” of progressing her application after approaching the embassy.
Fatima Payman, pictured with independent David Pocock, during the vote on the Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood last week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Independent senator David Pocock - who himself had to deal with dual citizenship issues before running - called out the politicking.
“Raising questions about her eligibility under section 44 by people from the same party who took responsibility for ensuring the eligibility of her candidacy and now are too cowardly to put their name to the allegations is such grubby politics,” Pocock said.
“I hope people will see this backgrounding and smear campaign for what it is.”
Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said it was unlikely the case would go to the High Court as the 40-day challenge period had expired, and it was up to the Senate to refer it.
“The Labor Party would have some difficulty doing that as they took the view when they endorsed her as a candidate so they would have to reverse that,” Twomey said.
“Basically, it’s extremely unlikely it would go to court.”
But if it did, there was some uncertainty about how the court would rule given uncertainty about the situation in Afghanistan, she said.
While it was legal to run if there was no way to relinquish citizenship, it was “bad luck” if the process was unduly long and Senator Payman’s case could sit somewhere in the middle, the lawyer said, adding she had good grounds to argue.
AAP