Fatima Payman, a senator for Labor from Western Australia, has declared that she has been “exiled” by her colleagues and the party after threatening to vote against Palestinian statehood once more.
The senator claimed in a Facebook statement on Monday afternoon that she had been shunned by colleagues and kicked out of caucus sessions and group conversations.
Payman stated, “The prime minister suspended me from the Australian Labor party caucus yesterday, effective immediately.”
I haven’t spoken to any of my caucus colleagues since then. I am no longer able to access committee meetings, internal group chats, caucus sessions, or whips bulletins. I’ve been instructed to stay away from any chamber business that calls for a vote, such as motions, divisions, and subjects of public concern.
The senator for the first time claimed to have been “exiled” and to have been told that “some members are trying to intimidate me into resigning from the Senate.”
She declared, “As a result, for the rest of this week, I will refrain from voting on Senate matters unless there is a matter of conscience where I will uphold the true values and principles of the Labor party.”
“I’ll use this time to consider how best to represent the people of Western Australia in the future.”
The prime minister’s office has been contacted by Guardian Australia regarding Payman’s allegations. An official from the government declined to comment.
Following an interview with Insiders in which the Western Australian senator stated she would once more vote against a Senate motion to recognize the state of Palestine, Anthony Albanese removed Payman indefinitely from Labor’s caucus on Sunday.
The prime minister said on radio on Monday morning that Payman “chose to… disrupt Labor and what we are doing today, the day before the most significant assistance that has been given to working people in a very long period of time” by agreeing to participate in the interview.
When questioned by the Coalition about why Payman should not be kicked out of the party, Albanese responded that it was crucial for “social harmony… that we take temperature down in this debate, not seek to inflame it.”
He said, “I told Senator Payman yesterday that by her own actions, she has placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating in the federal parliamentary Labor party caucus.”
The government’s proposed amendment to the motion, which stated that recognition of Palestine should take place “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace,” was rejected last week by the Coalition and the Greens.
All of the Labor senators could have voted in favor of the motion if that amendment had been approved.
In a previous vote, Labor and the opposition joined forces to denounce the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which Payman had uttered in a hastily called press conference, deviating from Labor’s policy.
Labor had “shamefully sanctioned” Payman, according to Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, who stated in the upper house on Monday that Labor should instead concentrate its efforts on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government.
During Senate question time, Faruqi posed the following question to the government: “How many more Palestinians will be killed before you take concrete action?”
Penny Wong, the minister of foreign affairs, told the Senate that she could see the Greens’ desire “to run a political line here in this chamber.”
David Shoebridge, Faruqi’s colleague, chimed in, “To stop a genocide?”
The Albanese government has embraced the strongest support for Palestinian statehood in Australia’s history, Wong informed the Senate.
She stated that the government had voted in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza in December and then again in favor of elevating the status of the Palestinian mission at the UN general assembly in May.
“We don’t think that declaring moral superiority and criticizing others produces anything other than self-satisfaction, and unlike the Greens, we don’t try to wake up every morning figuring out how to stand in the way of change,” Wong stated.
“Disturbed by the suggestion that towing the Labor party’s line is more important than standing up for the rights and lives of Palestinians as they are slaughtered in Gaza,” stated the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.
Earlier on Monday, Albanese stated that he wished to be “very clear” that Payman’s suspension was due to a team rule violation rather than “her support for a policy position.”
Payman’s coworkers have already expressed their hope that she stays in the party. Longtime supporter of Palestinian statehood, Ged Kearney, the assistant health minister, stated to Guardian Australia that Fatima “has good labor movement values and I hope she stays in the Labor party.”
Jenny McAllister, the associate minister for climate change, told on Monday afternoon that Payman would ultimately decide how she would proceed in the party.
“I believe it has been made very clear that Senator Payman would be welcome to rejoin in the event that she would like to continue adhering to [Labor’s collective decision-making] conventions.”
