Sin bin for rebel Fatima Payman who called Labor’s bluff

Anthony Albanese has rebuffed Left faction union bosses and ­indefinitely suspended Fatima Payman from caucus, with the labour movement split over the future of the rogue senator.

Senator Fatima Payman on Insiders on Sunday. Picture - ABC

Anthony Albanese has rebuffed Left faction union bosses and ­indefinitely suspended Fatima Payman from caucus meetings for vowing to again vote with the Greens in backing the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, with leading figures in the labour movement split over the future of the rogue senator.

With Labor MPs demanding action against Senator Payman for breaking with the party’s tradition of caucus solidarity, the Prime Minister on Sunday increased his sanction against the West Australian for promising to keep crossing the floor of parliament in defiance of the government’s position on Palestine.

Senator Payman was last week given a “restrained” punishment and banned from attending caucus for just one week after she defied a 130-year tradition and voted against Labor’s position, an action that is supposed to lead to party ­expulsion.

Moments after Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said there would be consequences if she did so again, Senator Payman on Sunday said she would vote with the Greens if the party followed through on a threat to push another motion calling on the Senate to immediately recognise Palestine.

Labor’s position is that Palestinian recognition should happen “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and ­enduring peace”.

Mr Albanese hauled Senator Payman into The Lodge on Sunday and told her she was indefinitely banned from caucus, with her sanction endorsed in a meeting of the government’s leadership team of the Prime Minister, Mr Marles, Senate leader Penny Wong and deputy Senate leader Don Farrell.

The punishment is less severe than is traditionally handed to Labor MPs who cross the floor as she retains her membership of the party and will continue to sit with the government in the Senate.

Some ALP figures are arguing Senator Payman should be expelled if she crosses the floor again, although Left faction sources said this would likely be the extent of her punishment and she could ­rejoin caucus when the issue dies down. Some furious Labor MPs believe Senator Payman was goading Mr Albanese into kicking her out of the party so she could be a “martyr” for the Palestinian cause, saying she had never spoken up in caucus about the party’s position on the issue. “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,” a government spokeswoman said. “If Senator Payman decides she will respect the caucus and her Labor colleagues she can return, but until then Senator Payman is suspended.”

But United Workers Union ­national secretary Tim Kennedy and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Steve Murphy backed Senator Payman. Mr Kennedy said his union – which Senator Payman was an organiser for before she entered parliament – backed her “courageous stand”.

Mr Kennedy said her suspension was a matter for the ALP as he did not want to interfere in its party processes, “but many people in the union, me included, want to give support to Fatima”.

“There would be a lot of people in the union who would be supportive of Fatima at the moment because what she’s done is a difficult thing. She’s done it with a genuine and humanitarian focus,” he said. “There’s a lot of human tragedy and a lot of people dying over there so we would like to say we support her in making that courageous stand.” Mr Kennedy said he hoped she “stays in the party because I think we need to look at these things and give people space to voice their conscience on these things”.

Ahead of her suspension, Mr Murphy on Sunday said it was wrong to be calling for sanctions against Senator Payman for “voting for peace and safety”.

“If we are discussing sanctions, it should be in response to the violence and suffering on innocent lives in Gaza,” Mr Murphy said.

The CFMEU last week backed Senator Payman.

The Australian understands Left and Right faction MPs were this week planning on pushing Mr Albanese to do more to punish Senator Payman, amid anger within caucus that the decision to last week give her a light punishment was a “captain’s call”.

The extension of the suspension is likely to placate some MPs.

Senator Payman on Sunday said she had the support of many unionists and rank-and-file Labor members, a reality that complicates the push to expel her.

“The party, to me, are rank-and-file members, are unionists, are phone bankers, door knockers, long-life members of the party who put together the platform,” she told the ABC. “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.”

When asked about Senator Wong being among gay Labor MPs who voted against same-sex marriage in parliament while she was making the case for change internally, Senator Payman said: “It took 10 years to legislate same-sex marriage. We’re talking about 40,000 Palestinians being massacred here.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the government should “join the over 140 countries around the world that recognise Palestine”.