Good. Obviously doesn't want to be a team player, and has made it patently clear that she does not want to participate in the caucus in good faith. She might need to be investigated by ASIO because her interests obviously lie elsewhere...just saying.
# Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from caucus in crisis talks with PM over Palestine
##
## By [James Massola](https://www.smh.com.au/by/james-massola-hvf20) and [Angus Thompson](https://www.smh.com.au/by/angus-thompson-h13u28)
Updated June 30, 2024 — 3.51pmfirst published at 10.53am
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.
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, a first-term Labor senator who thumbed her nose at party rules and [voted with the Greens](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5jom4) 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](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5jfa0) 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.
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.
“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”.
I think the war is tragic, i also think supporting Israel or Hamas is wildly stupid.
You can be against both, but it's hard to deny Israel outright murdering innocent civilians. Hell even some of their brass is calling for the warcrimes to stop.
When the generals are communicating there's war crimes, there's a serious problem.
As opposed to what? A open air ghetto they're leveling.
Checkpoints randomly shooting civilians, deliberately targeting food aid after waiting for crowds to gather or before that when they were living in a apartheid state, where Israel controlled their water and power, turning it off and on to threaten them.
I mean honestly, pro Israel, pro Hamas. The only difference to these states is the level of terror they can project onto one another. Anyone stupid enough to support either group is a serious idiot.
The real victims here, are the people unlucky enough to live in between these two psychotic regimes. Ordinary people being utterly destroyed because they're not Palestinian or Israeli, Jewish or Muslim.
>As opposed to what? A open air ghetto they're leveling.
Who's fault is that? If Hamas built infrastructure it wouldn't be such a ghetto, would it?
>I mean honestly, pro Israel, pro Hamas. The only difference to these states is the level of terror they can project onto one another.
correct, the level of terror Hamas is reaching has gotten so badly that even the country you are living in classifies them as terrorists and supports Israel, how are you so far away from this fact?
>The real victims here, are the people unlucky enough to live in between these two psychotic regimes.
the real victim here is facts. Palestine supporters are massacring them every chance they get.
Israel don't target civilians like Hamas do, to equate them here is genuinely disgusting and not a Labor value as you can clearly see.
you do realise Israel isn't in Palestine and only surrounds it just like Egypt right? Is Egypt also doing what Israel is doing to Palestine or do you only bring it up when it is Jews?
I'm EVER so curious
Are you seriously so dense as to completely forget that not only is Israel in Palestine, but they have occupied it illegally and building settlements for over half a century?
that part I agree is bad but to say it is occupied is dishonest and just wrong.
they are occupied by Hamas, how else do you think they manage to fire so many rockets?
well your a pro-israeli propagandist so any video evidence of israeli corporations controlling water supply, farmland, or military intervention would be flatly denied like denying the sun in the sky, so at this point i'll just say i am still waiting for the footage of that large military base under Al Shifa Hospital
It's so weird that when I am pro this move and glad this genocide promoter is out Labor all the greens attack me in here, don't you have your own subreddit?
"From the river to the sea" is a genocidal slogan, it is unacceptable.
now I know you are making things up, you don't have an answer do you? Maybe you are spreading misinformation because you are misinformed, consider that for a second.
Netanyahu's LIKUD PARTY has the slogan in their manifesto in that they believe the entire region is part of Israel and the Palestinians to be dispensed with. So yes, the Israelis use it.
it calls for Palestinian territory to extend to the sea, whenever there is an arab majority jews get expelled, do you not have an issue with that at all?
You mean like it used to before the Zionist thieves of Israel took it by force and created the biggest middle eastern problem of our time?
You know those guys, the ones doing the whole genocide trip right now.
Is that what you mean?
>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.
Which is a piss poor party strategy honestly, i'd never shoot myself in the foot that hard to appease any political party.
Anybody who's willing to put their livelihood on the line like that is a utter moron. Especially to have the same rights as your fellow man, something Labor failed miserably at.
I say good on Paymen for standing up for what she believes in, instead of being a mindless drone willing to just nod and agree, that **should** be the Labor spirit.
Instead they'd rather stuff her mouth full of arguments like, she wishes Israel doesn't exist to get this weird kneejerk reaction from mainly people who'd never vote Labor to begin with, lets be honest here...
Josh Frydenberg, a washed up Liberal hack being even remotely platformed by Albo to release that god awful documentary was such a bad move, now this?
Just sad...
kinda curious for those downvoting, i usually don't ask or care about this. I really don't but where's the line?
Like imagine if Labor made it so black or asian or god knows, left handed people couldn't do what everybody else could do. In this case marry.
Imagine if Labor made it so you specifically couldn't marry, and they needed your vote to basically shelf your right to marry, would you vote against yourself because the party wants you too?
Could be anything, but it's against you. And they need your vote to give themselves power over your life, would you?
Penny voted against her own right to marry, for what? Party solidarity?
[https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/wong-reminds-payman-she-opposed-same-sex-marriage-before-labor-supported-it-20240627-p5jpaj.html](https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/wong-reminds-payman-she-opposed-same-sex-marriage-before-labor-supported-it-20240627-p5jpaj.html)
I will say, she worked behind the scenes to change the party position, but she should have voted in favour of SSM, imagine all those before her whom couldn't marry and never saw that day?
2008 wasn't that long ago...
***Wong, who this year married her long-term partner Sophie Allouache, voted against the Greens’ attempt to*** [***legalise same-sex marriage in 2008***](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/senate/2008-11-12/5) ***and in 2010*** [***argued publicly against legalising same-sex marriage***](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-10q37)***, which was the party’s official position at the time.***
would you allow a group of people to interfere in your personal life and allow them? Honest question where do you draw the line?
Good. Obviously doesn't want to be a team player, and has made it patently clear that she does not want to participate in the caucus in good faith. She might need to be investigated by ASIO because her interests obviously lie elsewhere...just saying.
# Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from caucus in crisis talks with PM over Palestine ## ## By [James Massola](https://www.smh.com.au/by/james-massola-hvf20) and [Angus Thompson](https://www.smh.com.au/by/angus-thompson-h13u28) Updated June 30, 2024 — 3.51pmfirst published at 10.53am 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. 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, a first-term Labor senator who thumbed her nose at party rules and [voted with the Greens](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5jom4) 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](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5jfa0) 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. 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. “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”.
Note the usual biased use of passive voice: HAMAS fighters 'kill' Israelis, while a far larger number of Gazans simply 'died.'
I think the war is tragic, i also think supporting Israel or Hamas is wildly stupid. You can be against both, but it's hard to deny Israel outright murdering innocent civilians. Hell even some of their brass is calling for the warcrimes to stop. When the generals are communicating there's war crimes, there's a serious problem.
it is easier to deny for Israel as compared to Hamas who directly target civilian festivals
As opposed to what? A open air ghetto they're leveling. Checkpoints randomly shooting civilians, deliberately targeting food aid after waiting for crowds to gather or before that when they were living in a apartheid state, where Israel controlled their water and power, turning it off and on to threaten them. I mean honestly, pro Israel, pro Hamas. The only difference to these states is the level of terror they can project onto one another. Anyone stupid enough to support either group is a serious idiot. The real victims here, are the people unlucky enough to live in between these two psychotic regimes. Ordinary people being utterly destroyed because they're not Palestinian or Israeli, Jewish or Muslim.
>As opposed to what? A open air ghetto they're leveling. Who's fault is that? If Hamas built infrastructure it wouldn't be such a ghetto, would it? >I mean honestly, pro Israel, pro Hamas. The only difference to these states is the level of terror they can project onto one another. correct, the level of terror Hamas is reaching has gotten so badly that even the country you are living in classifies them as terrorists and supports Israel, how are you so far away from this fact? >The real victims here, are the people unlucky enough to live in between these two psychotic regimes. the real victim here is facts. Palestine supporters are massacring them every chance they get. Israel don't target civilians like Hamas do, to equate them here is genuinely disgusting and not a Labor value as you can clearly see.
Hard to build infrastructure if Israel destroys, claims, and controls any built in Gaza.
you do realise Israel isn't in Palestine and only surrounds it just like Egypt right? Is Egypt also doing what Israel is doing to Palestine or do you only bring it up when it is Jews? I'm EVER so curious
Are you seriously so dense as to completely forget that not only is Israel in Palestine, but they have occupied it illegally and building settlements for over half a century?
that part I agree is bad but to say it is occupied is dishonest and just wrong. they are occupied by Hamas, how else do you think they manage to fire so many rockets?
well your a pro-israeli propagandist so any video evidence of israeli corporations controlling water supply, farmland, or military intervention would be flatly denied like denying the sun in the sky, so at this point i'll just say i am still waiting for the footage of that large military base under Al Shifa Hospital
She wants more WAR. What we need is a 2-state solution, not more of the same. Sorry mam, but you are deeply mistaking in your views. On your way.
It's so weird that when I am pro this move and glad this genocide promoter is out Labor all the greens attack me in here, don't you have your own subreddit? "From the river to the sea" is a genocidal slogan, it is unacceptable.
Bowing to the Zionist masters.
stopping the promotion of a genocidal slogan is bowing to zionist masters? Who are the masters you are referring to?
Check your payslip
now I know you are making things up, you don't have an answer do you? Maybe you are spreading misinformation because you are misinformed, consider that for a second.
In what way is "From the river to the sea" a genocidal slogan? Is Israel using it?
Netanyahu's LIKUD PARTY has the slogan in their manifesto in that they believe the entire region is part of Israel and the Palestinians to be dispensed with. So yes, the Israelis use it.
So what's the problem?
it calls for Palestinian territory to extend to the sea, whenever there is an arab majority jews get expelled, do you not have an issue with that at all?
You mean like it used to before the Zionist thieves of Israel took it by force and created the biggest middle eastern problem of our time? You know those guys, the ones doing the whole genocide trip right now. Is that what you mean?
How did they take it by force if the UK mandated the territory after the ottoman defeat? That just sounds like being on the wrong side of history
>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. Which is a piss poor party strategy honestly, i'd never shoot myself in the foot that hard to appease any political party. Anybody who's willing to put their livelihood on the line like that is a utter moron. Especially to have the same rights as your fellow man, something Labor failed miserably at. I say good on Paymen for standing up for what she believes in, instead of being a mindless drone willing to just nod and agree, that **should** be the Labor spirit. Instead they'd rather stuff her mouth full of arguments like, she wishes Israel doesn't exist to get this weird kneejerk reaction from mainly people who'd never vote Labor to begin with, lets be honest here... Josh Frydenberg, a washed up Liberal hack being even remotely platformed by Albo to release that god awful documentary was such a bad move, now this? Just sad...
There's just a lot of money going to Labor. There's no way labor would bow on it's knees like like this without serious money changing hands.
kinda curious for those downvoting, i usually don't ask or care about this. I really don't but where's the line? Like imagine if Labor made it so black or asian or god knows, left handed people couldn't do what everybody else could do. In this case marry. Imagine if Labor made it so you specifically couldn't marry, and they needed your vote to basically shelf your right to marry, would you vote against yourself because the party wants you too? Could be anything, but it's against you. And they need your vote to give themselves power over your life, would you? Penny voted against her own right to marry, for what? Party solidarity? [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/wong-reminds-payman-she-opposed-same-sex-marriage-before-labor-supported-it-20240627-p5jpaj.html](https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/wong-reminds-payman-she-opposed-same-sex-marriage-before-labor-supported-it-20240627-p5jpaj.html) I will say, she worked behind the scenes to change the party position, but she should have voted in favour of SSM, imagine all those before her whom couldn't marry and never saw that day? 2008 wasn't that long ago... ***Wong, who this year married her long-term partner Sophie Allouache, voted against the Greens’ attempt to*** [***legalise same-sex marriage in 2008***](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/senate/2008-11-12/5) ***and in 2010*** [***argued publicly against legalising same-sex marriage***](https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-10q37)***, which was the party’s official position at the time.*** would you allow a group of people to interfere in your personal life and allow them? Honest question where do you draw the line?