Marise Ann Payne (born 29 July 1964) is an Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1997 until 2023, representing the Liberal Party.

Payne was first added to the shadow ministry in 2007, and when the Coalition returned to power in 2013 she was made Minister for Human Services in the Abbott government.

[10] Following the resignation of Senator Bob Woods in March 1997, Payne was chosen by the Liberal Party to fill the casual vacancy.

When she took her seat, The Sydney Morning Herald ran a headline describing her as "The Senator John Howard Didn't Want".

[4] She was preselected in third place on the Coalition ticket at the 2001 election, with Howard intervening to ensure Helen Coonan ranked ahead of her as the first Liberal candidate.

Marise Payne is a politician with a large part of her parliamentary career still ahead of her, and with this appointment, unlike the last few, there's more to be optimistic about than to be pessimistic about.

[17] A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticised the white paper for its "negative" remarks about the South China Sea.

Payne responded that "we have a strong defence relationship [with China] but we do have a point of difference in this regard and we are certainly not going to take a backward step in articulating our position".

[18] In April 2016, she and Turnbull announced that French firm DCNS, now called Naval Group, had been awarded a $50 billion contract to build a new fleet of submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

[19] Payne had abdominal surgery in late 2016, which resulted in the deferral of the "two-plus-two" meeting between the foreign and defence ministers of Australia and Japan.

[20] In January 2018, the Australian Financial Review reported that Turnbull had considered replacing Payne with Christopher Pyne in the December 2017 cabinet reshuffle.

Foreign minister Julie Bishop, an unsuccessful candidate for the Liberal leadership, announced her resignation from cabinet on 26 August.

[6] On 19 April 2020, Payne called for a global inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic including China's handling of the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

[26][27] In early June 2021, Marise contacted her Saudi Arabian counterpart to address the plight of a dual national, Osama al-Hasani, extradited from Morocco and being allegedly kept in detention in the Kingdom.

The dual Saudi-Australia citizen was arrested on 8 February by Moroccan authorities and extradited to Saudi Arabia, due to alleged accusations of stealing Range Rovers from a car dealership in 2015.

According to Senator Simon Birmingham, she argued forcefully against the Northern Territory National Emergency Response in the Liberal partyroom.

[5] In 2004, in response to calls for the federal government to withdraw Medicare funding of abortions, she stated "people should not be prepared to see the rights and health of Australian women go backwards".

Payne is in a long-term relationship with her domestic partner Stuart Ayres, who was a minister in the New South Wales state government.