Fatima Payman’s husband Jacob Stokes revealedas Labor staffer who ran her Senate campaign

KatinaCurtis and Dan Jervis-BardyTheWest Australian

Thu,4 July 2024 11:08AM

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SenatorFatima Payman
pictured with husband Jacob Stokes, a ministerial staffer for theWA Government. Credit: Unknown/Supplied

Fatima Payman’s husbandJacob Stokes is a policy adviser in the State Labor Government who helped runthe senator’s campaign in the 2022 Federal election.

He has used socialmedia to staunchly defend his wife’s position, saying as recently as March thather resigning from Labor would be “the worst thing to happen” if people wantedthe party to shift its position in Palestine.

Senator Payman is nowconsidering her future after being suspended from Labor’s federal caucus overbreaking party rules and crossing the floor to back a Greens motion onPalestinian statehood.

She is widely expectedto leave the party.

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In late March, MrStokes was arguing Senator Payman needed to remain inside the tent to shift theFederal Government’s position, as The West revealed on Thursday.

“I think the worstthing to happen would be for her to resign,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“Making governmentshift its foreign policy position does not happen overnight.

FatimaPayman. Credit: MICKTSIKAS/AAPIMAGE

“She needs to work herway up, and be there to recruit more Muslims into the party and intoGovernment.

“THAT’s how we getrepresentation.”

He did not identifyhimself as Senator Payman’s husband or a Labor staffer on his X profile or inthe posts, although it is not unusual for political staffers to keep their jobsprivate on social media.

He also he told criticsSenator Payman was doing everything she could to advocate for Palestine,including lobbying cabinet ministers, but that when it came to Senate votes,“she has to vote along party lines, or she’d be booted”.

He said if SenatorPayman quit then Labor’s “strongest Muslim voice in Parliament” would bereplaced with “another white male”.

The comments wereposted seven weeks before Senator Payman first split from the Government’spublic position to declare Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and to usethe politically contentious chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will befree”.

In recent days, MrStokes has been defending Senator Payman from other criticisms that she onlyspoke about the Middle East conflict, pointing to her social media postspromoting Labor policies including the July 1 tax cuts.

The senator haspreviously kept the relationship incredibly private, with a social media postin February about her marriage showing only their hands.

She included Mr Stokesamong the “incredible mentors and support network” of the Labor and unionmovement whom she thanked in her first speech to the Senate.

“Jacob Stokes,congratulations on running the best Senate campaign Australia has ever seen,with a great deal of strategic direction and management. Thank you for puttingup with my highs and lows on the campaign trail,” she said.

Mr Stokes set his X andFacebook accounts to private hours after The West contacted him for commentabout the posts.