Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from caucus in crisis talks with PM over Palestine

Labor senator Fatima Payman has been indefinitely suspended from the Labor caucus during crisis talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at The Lodge in Canberra.

Payman was summoned to the prime minister’s residence on Sunday afternoon after an explosive interview on the ABC’s Insiders program in which she vowed to cross the floor again and vote for a motion supporting an independent Palestinian state, should the Greens put one before parliament again this week.

Labor senator Fatima Payman leaves the Lodge in Canberra on Sunday afternoon after being suspended from caucus by Anthony Albanese.Credit: James Massola

The defiant West Australian senator was at The Lodge for about 40 minutes and was spotted leaving by this masthead about 3.10pm on Sunday.

Asked if she had been expelled from the ALP, Payman said no but did not take any further questions. A source close to the senator not permitted to speak on the record said she was now considering her future with Labor and had received a “stern” talking to from the prime minister.

A Labor spokesperson said after the meeting: “By her own actions and statements, Senator Payman has placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating in the federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus.

“If Senator Payman decides she will respect the caucus and her Labor colleagues, she can return, but until then, Senator Payman is suspended from the right to participate in federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus meetings and processes.”

Albanese told Payman during their meeting that he, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Senate leader Penny Wong and her deputy, Don Farrell, had signed off on the suspension after Payman’s television interview on Sunday morning.

Payman in question time on Wednesday.Credit: James Brickwood

Payman, a first-term Labor senator who thumbed her nose at party rules and voted with the Greens last week on a motion expressing support for a Palestinian state, told the Insiders program that she did not know if the crossbench party had another motion planned when parliament resumes on Monday.

But if the Greens brought the same motion recognising a Palestinian state back to parliament, she said: “I would cross the floor.”

The comments are the first time Payman has vowed to cross the floor again and represented a direct threat to the prime minister’s authority and the principle of Labor Party unity, throwing into question whether she could remain in the federal parliamentary Labor Party.

The prospect of Payman crossing the floor again also threatened to overshadow Labor’s message about the July 1 tax cuts delivering much-needed relief to households.

Speaking about a decision made by the prime minister last week to suspend her from caucus for a week after she crossed the floor, she said that decision was within Albanese’s prerogative but she had no regrets.

“I respect the prime minister and my senior colleagues and obviously, the prime minister had a stern but fair conversation with me a few days ago, and I understand that he’s got very important decisions to make as the leader of our nation,” she said.

“When I made the decision on the Senate floor to cross, I did it with the understanding that this could lead to expulsion and costing my Labor membership.”

“I do not intend on leaving the party, because I firmly believe that I’ve upheld all the values of what, as the Labor Party, we should stand for.”

Payman said she had not spoken to the Greens about whether they would put a similar motion up in the Senate this week when parliament resumes, and said it would be up to the caucus to decide if she would face further sanctions.

Payman voted with the Greens and ACT independent David Pocock last week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Greens leader Adam Bandt stopped short of promising to bring back the same motion, but signalled it was likely as the crossbench party had put pressure on Labor to act every time parliament sat.

“We will be having discussions over the coming days about what we intend to do this week,” he said. “I hope Labor does not continue to put further pressure on Senator Payman, but instead listens to the urgency with which she and others are speaking about the situation in Gaza right now.”

Payman’s decision to cross the floor last Tuesday came in the ninth month of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. On October 7, Hamas fighters crossed into Israel, killing 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, according to the Israel Defence Force. Gazan health authorities report more than 37,000 people have died during the subsequent invasion.

The last time a Labor MP crossed the floor was in 2005, when former Tasmanian MP Harry Quick asked for his name to be recorded in Hansard as having voted against an anti-terrorism bill.

Payman defended her use of the controversial phrase “From the river to the sea”, which is interpreted by some people as a call for the Israeli state to be abolished. She said she supported a two-state solution and backed Israel’s right to exist, taking a swipe at Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who earlier in the week pointed out she had had to vote against same-sex marriage before Labor switched position to support it.

Defence Minister Richard Marles.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I understand their advocacy from within,” Payman said. “It took 10 years to legislate same-sex marriage. We’re talking about 40,000 Palestinians being massacred here. These Palestinians do not have 10 years.”

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles stepped up his criticism of Payman’s actions while deflecting questions about whether the senator would be punished again for crossing the floor.

“We’ve sought to act with restraint here,” Marles told Insiders when asked about Albanese’s decision to bar Payman from attending a caucus meeting this week.

Marles said he couldn’t “overemphasise enough” how important caucus members regarded the obligations of being members of the Labor team.

“We only get the privilege of serving in this parliament, not because of who we are as individuals, but because when we stand for election, the word ‘Labor’ is next to our name, and that’s obviously the case for Senator Payman ... she would not be a senator but for the fact that Labor is next to her name,” he said.

Marles told Insiders that caucus solidarity was “at the heart of the obligations that we have, in terms of being members of the Labor Party, and being given the great privilege that we have in serving the Australian people in the parliament, and clearly that that will be foremost in the minds of the caucus”.

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