Labour party supports suspension of Senator

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suspended Fatima Payman indefinitely on Sunday after she said in a television interview that she would do the same in a similar vote.

The Payman row has overshadowed the government’s cost-of-living measures in Parliament’s final week before the winter recess.

Albanese said at the Labor Party’s caucus meeting on Tuesday that he had been criticised for his reticence, but “a little compassion is a strength, not a weakness”.

He also pointed out that Senator Payman was only elected because she stood as a Labor Party candidate.

The senator had “placed herself, through her own actions and statements, outside the privileges that come with participation in the Labor Party group in the federal parliament.”

“This is the most united caucus meeting I have ever been part of,” Albanese said in the caucus room.

She could return if she promised to respect party procedures, he said.

There was no debate and the motion was passed unanimously, a party spokesman said.

Senior ministers have backed Albanese’s push to suspend the West Australian after she supported a Greens motion in the Senate calling for urgent recognition of Palestine as a state.

It has been common practice at the Labor Party conference to expel members who disrupt the party’s leadership, but the internal rules do not provide for any prescribed sanction.

Payman has described how she has been isolated since then, saying she was pressured to quit after her sentence was imposed.

Health Minister Mark Butler “completely rejected” claims that the senator had been intimidated and said Albanese had adhered to established party policy.

“The prime minister’s position was set out in a fair and proportionate manner on Sunday following the interview on Insiders,” he said, referring to Payman’s statement on the ABC program that she would switch sides again in a similar vote on Palestine.

Voting as a bloc is not a new position, he said.

“This is a long-standing Labour Party principle which the party’s candidates subscribe to when they are given the privilege of standing for election to public office with the Labour Party next to their name on the ballot paper,” he said.

Payman has also been instructed to avoid all duties in Parliament, including participating in votes, she said in a statement on Monday.

“I have lost contact with my parliamentary group colleagues. I have been excluded from parliamentary group meetings, committees, internal group chats and parliamentary group bulletins,” she said.

“I have been banished. These actions lead me to believe that some members are trying to intimidate me and get me to resign from the Senate.”

Colleagues have tried to contact Payman, said Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.

“These are decisions she made for herself,” she said.

“I know that many of her colleagues who have worked with her are desperately trying to help her in any way they can.”

Gallagher rejected the argument that this meant there were limits to the diversity that the Labour leadership says it prides itself on.

“Our diversity is our strength. The Labour Party has always supported diversity throughout history,” she said.

“Our election to government in 2022 produced the most diverse parliamentary group ever and we are really proud of that.”

– AAP