Labor Senator Fatima Payman suspended from caucus ‘indefinitely’ after Palestine vow

The PM has doubled down on a decision to ban a rogue senator, but the Coalition says the issue is “another blow” to the PM’s authority.

Anthony Albanese has “weakened” his own authority by delaying his decision to suspend rogue Senator Fatima Payman from the Labor caucus until her repeated outright defiance over Palestine forced his hand, the Coalition says.

The Prime Minister moved to end what Labor figures feared had become an “unhelpful” distraction for the government by suspending Ms Payman from the federal caucus “indefinitely” less than a week after issuing her with a one-week ban for crossing the floor to back a Greens motion recognising Palestinian statehood.

The Opposition has seized on the internal crisis sparked by Ms Payman’s vow on Sunday morning she would again break ranks to support pro-Palestine motions in the future, with Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham accusing the PM of taking a week to “realise what was immediately evident to everyone else”.

“This is yet another blow to (Mr Albanese’s) authority, which was further weakened by the indecisive way this issue was handled,” Mr Birmingham said.

“All of the Prime Minister’s changing of positions on this issue hasn’t appeased extreme views as he’d hoped, but just sees him being pushed to go even further to the left.”

Senator Fatima Payman says she will cross the floor to vote in support of Palestinian statehood. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Fatima, a first-term Senator from Western Australia, was summoned to the Lodge in Canberra for a meeting with Mr Albanese on Sunday afternoon, just hours after she appeared on ABC’s Insiders and pledged to continue to defy the Labor Party’s rules on caucus solidarity.

Speaking for the first time since a government spokeswoman confirmed the extended suspension, Anthony Albanese stated on Monday that Senator Payman’s comments made her continued participation in Labor caucus meetings untenable.

He said her actions were intended to “undermine what is the collective position that the Labor Party has determined” and had “disrupted” the launch of Labor’s cost-of-living policies.

“No individual is bigger than the team, and Fatima Payman is welcome to return to participating in the team if she accepts she’s a member of it,” Albanese said.

“What we have is a process where people participate, people respect each other and people don’t engage in indulgence, such as the decision last week.

“Pretending the Senate recognises states is quite frankly untenable.”

A government spokeswoman then confirmed Ms Payman had been “indefinitely” suspended from the federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus as her “own actions and statements” had “placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating”.

“If Senator Payman decides she will respect the caucus and her Labor colleagues, she can return, but until then Senator Payman is suspended,” she said.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says Senator Fatima Payman is in parliament due to the Labor Party. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Payman infuriated many of her colleagues on Sunday morning when she confirmed if faced with a vote on Palestinian statehood she again “would cross the floor” knowing this risked suspension or even expulsion from Labor.

Describing Labor as a party of “conscience” and “champions of human rights,” Ms Payman said she had abided by those “principles” by crossing the floor, a move she believed was also overwhelmingly supported by rank-and-file members.

Prior to her suspension, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Mr Albanese had acted with “restraint” in his initial one-week ban due to consideration of deep community division over Israel-Palestine in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.

“We wanted to have that guide our actions in this case, and we didn’t think that it served to go around expelling people for having a particular view on this issue,” he said.

Labor Senator Fatima Payman says she has been getting the ‘cold shoulder’ from some colleagues. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Ms Payman said she was also in favour of the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland state and a two-state solution, but argued it could not be achieved “without recognising one of those two states”.

“I think that the Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side,” she said.

Ms Payman said she did not have “any intention” of quitting the Labor Party, and that any further sanctions imposed against her were a decision for caucus.

The WA Senator said she had experienced the “cold shoulder” from some colleagues since last week, but the “majority” had been checking on her welfare in solidarity of her decision.