https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c880l1ddpzgo
How a Gaza 'stunt' divided Australia's parliament
Hannah Ritchie, BBC News, Sydney, 1 July 2024
When Fatima Payman crossed the Senate floor to vote against her government she knew it would come with consequences.
The Australian Labor party has strict penalties for those who undermine its collective positions, and acts of defiance can lead to expulsion - a precedent with a 130-year history.
The last time one of its politicians tested the waters while in power was before Ms Payman was born.
But last Tuesday, the 29-year-old did just that - joining the Greens party and independent senators to support a motion on Palestinian statehood.
Officially the Australian government supports a two-state solution, but did not back the motion after trying - and failing - to insert a condition that any recognition should be “as part of a peace process”.
Within hours, Ms Payman had been temporarily suspended from her party room, by the end of the week it would become indefinite - after she publicly vowed to cross the floor again if given the opportunity.
"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 spokesperson said.
Prime Minister and Labor leader Anthony Albanese was more concise: “No individual is bigger than the team.”
On Monday, Ms Payman responded by saying she had been "exiled" – explaining that she had been removed from caucus meetings, group chats and all committees.
The dismissal of the senator, elected in what was billed as Australia’s most diverse parliament to date, has drawn a mixed response and raised questions - mainly, whether it’s practical or fair for politicians to toe the line on issues affecting their communities.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... abor-party
Rebel with a cause: inside the moment Fatima Payman quit the Labor party
Daniel Hurst and Sarah Basford Canales,Thu, 4 Jul 2024
At 1.57pm – just three minutes before the Australian parliament’s final question time before the winter recess – journalists’ phones pinged with a hotly anticipated media alert.
“Please be advised that at 2:05pm today I will be making a statement at Mural Hall. See you there,” said the text message.
It was signed: “Senator Fatima Payman.”
The first-term senator from Western Australia had been widely tipped to quit the Labor party after a massive rupture with her own government over the Israeli assault on Gaza and the government’s refusal to immediately recognise Palestine as a state.
Still, the sudden press alert sent the media into a frenzy. Photographers who had been waiting in the red chamber for Senate question time rushed to join the media scrum on the second floor in the heart of Parliament House.
For days, calls to Payman’s electorate office in WA and her parliamentary office in Canberra were going straight to voicemail, after the 29-year-old was indefinitely suspended from the Labor caucus for threatening to cross the floor again. On Monday, she complained that she had felt the party had forced her into “exile”.
On Thursday, after weighing her future, Payman had found her voice. Australia’s first-ever hijab-wearing senator – whose family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan when she was a young child – informed the waiting press that she had made her decision with a heavy heart but a clear conscience.
“My family did not flee from a war-torn country to come here as refugees for me to remain silent when I see atrocities inflicted on innocent people,” the former WA Young Labor president said, resolute as the glare of the TV lights shone on her.
“Witnessing our government’s indifference to the greatest injustice of our times makes me question the direction the party is taking.”
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Gautam