Labor parliamentarians have backed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to indefinitely suspend Senator Fatima Payman from the caucus after she went against the party line to support Palestinian statehood.
The suspension came as a response to Ms. Payman’s interview with ABC’s Insiders on June 30, in which the Afghan-born Australian politician said she would cross the floor in the Senate again to vote for a motion calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Labor’s caucus meeting on Tuesday (July 2) saw members vote anonymously to support the Western Australia senator’s suspension.
The PM said Ms. Payman could return if she promised to respect the party rules.
“This is the most united caucus I’ve been a part of,” Mr. Albanese told the party room.
The PM also defended his restraint response, arguing, “some compassion is a strength not a weakness.”
While party policy allows Coalition ministers to cross the floor, Labor doesn’t permit its members to vote against collective decisions, with previous Labor MPs facing expulsion or suspension for doing so.
Payman Was Not ‘Intimidated’ But Given ‘Space And Time’: Shorten
Meanwhile, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has dismissed media reports claiming that Ms. Payman was pressured to resign from the Senate.Ms. Payman, a first-term senator for WA, said in a statement on social media on July 1 that she was alienated from the party.
“Since then, I have lost all my contact with my caucus colleagues. I have been removed from caucus meetings, committees, internal group chats, and whips bulletins,” she claimed.
“I have been told to avoid all chamber duties that require a vote, including divisions, motions, and matters of public interest. I have been exiled.”
Mr. Shorten, however, rebuffed the suggestions that Ms. Payman had been intimidated to resign or exiled, saying that the Labor leadership was “handling a complicated issue pretty well.”
“I do not for one second think that the Labor party has been anything other than reaching out to her,” he told ABC Radio on July 2.
“I can’t speak for how she’s feeling. That’s up to her, but I can speak towards what I see as the objective conduct of empathetic committed colleagues.”
Mr. Shorten also noted that Ms. Payman “comes from a diverse community who feels the grief and the horror of the deaths in Gaza,” but a Labor candidate “will be bound by the decisions of the caucus.”
“Now she can’t do that at the moment,” he said.
“I think the party is trying to deal with this challenge and respect the individual by saying hey, if you’re not happy with the rules, as you’ve signed up to, you know, take some time out and I think what the party is trying to do is give Fatima some space and time.”
Ms. Payman previously crossed the floor on June 25 to support a Greens motion on recognising Palestine as a state. She then told ABC TV’s Insiders program on the weekend that she would do it again if similar circumstances arise.
“It depends on what is brought forward in the Senate,” Payman said.
“But if the same motion on recognising the state of Palestine was to be brought forward tomorrow, I would cross the floor.”
