Payman votes with Greens, risking expulsion

Labor senator Fatima Payman has become the party’s first member to cross the floor in decades after she voted with the Greens to recognise Palestinian statehood in a vote yesterday.
The federal government moved quickly to quell expectations the WA senator would be expelled from Labor, despite the fact MPs have previously been thrown out for not toeing the party line. Payman said she was proud she upheld her convictions although she was bitterly disappointed her Labor colleagues had not joined her.
‘‘My decision to cross the floor was the most difficult decision I have had to make, and although each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk these steps by myself, and I know I did not walk them alone,’’ Payman said during a snap press conference held minutes after the vote.
‘‘I walked with the people of Palestine, for the 40,000 killed, for the hungry and scared boys and girls who now walk alone without their parents, and for the brave men and women who have to walk alone without their children. I walked for humanity. I am proud of what I did today, and I’m bitterly disappointed that my colleagues do not feel the same way.’’
Asked if she expected to be expelled from Labor, Payman said: ‘‘That is a prerogative for my party.
‘‘I believe that I have upheld the party ethos and called for what the party’s platform has stipulated,’’ she said
Labor rules bind caucus members to the party’s collective decisions, and MPs who vote against those risk being thrown out.
While not ruling out expulsion, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office said: ‘‘There is no mandated sanction in these circumstances, and previous caucus members have crossed the floor without facing expulsion.
‘‘The senator says she maintains strong Labor values and intends to continue representing the Western Australians who elected her as a Labor senator,’’ the spokesperson said.
Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Payman’s decision to vote with the Greens ‘‘directly challenges the leadership of the prime minister’’.
Greens leader Adam Bandt paid tribute to Payman, who he said ‘‘had the courage to do the right thing’’.
Payman said she only made up her mind over the vote while on the Senate floor and had not spoken to Albanese about her plans. ‘‘The Australian Labor Party’s policy platform recognises both Israel and Palestine. We cannot believe in two-state solutions and only recognise one,’’ she said.
‘‘I was not elected as a token representative of diversity. I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father. Today I have made a decision that would make him proud.’’
Payman said she’d received mixed treatment from her caucus colleagues. ‘‘There’s been many comrades who feel the same way, but don’t agree with the method I’ve gone about conveying my message,’’ she said.
‘‘Everyone who would ask me until today what I was going to do with this motion, I said: ‘I will follow my conscience and I will, you know, I’m in the hands of God and I will do what’s best for the people that I represent, and that I pledged to represent when I got elected.’’