Payman’s stand a snag in recognition of Palestine

Payman’s stand a snag in recognition of Palestine

It is too often forgotten in the Senator Fatima Payman furore that the issue that triggered her defection was whether to recognise Palestine now or later, essentially a matter of political judgment. It was not any failure by Labor to recognise the nightmarish horror being suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, which would much more obviously have raised a conscience issue for her.

Certainly there is a strong case, which I have made both privately to the ALP leadership and publicly, that Australia should join the more than 140 countries that now recognise Palestinian statehood – not just as the final outcome of a political settlement, but as a way of helping kick-start it. To do so would not be to reward Hamas for its October 7 outrage, but benefit Israel as well as ordinary Palestinians. Achieving a just two-state settlement, accommodating reasonable Palestinian aspirations, would by far be the best guarantor of Israel’s long-term security.

The government’s current position captures the spirit but not the urgency of the ALP platform. Senator Payman, I and many others wish it did. But her obligation, and opportunity, within the caucus, was – as she well knew – to swallow the disappointment of a decision not wholly satisfying her own strongly held belief, and fight within the party room to change it, as many of us have done over the decades when similarly challenged. Australia’s international voice on these matters is not inconsequential. The irony is that, by taking the defiant stand she has, Senator Payman has now made it politically harder for the government to take the small extra step in its recognition policy that would be in everyone’s interest, Palestinians and Israelis alike.

Gareth Evans, foreign minister (1988-96), leader of the government in the Senate (1993-96)

A futile gesture by the senator

What did Senator Payman expect to achieve by crossing the floor to vote for a meaningless Green’s motion that was never going to pass? She has not changed government policy. She has not prevented one death in Gaza. She has merely destroyed her reputation as a team player and created more division and conflict in our country. That’s not the way to achieve peace – anywhere.

Margaret Ludowyk, Brunswick

A prayer without meaning or effect

Anthony Albanese claims that faith-based parties would risk “Australia’s secularised political culture”. Why, then, is the Lord’s Prayer read at the beginning of each day’s parliamentary sitting? Beseeching a so-called “Almighty God” to bless parliament and prosper the work of thy servants to the advancement of thy glory is hardly consistent with a secularised political culture. And judging by the shenanigans in recent sittings, the prayer fell on deaf ears.

Angela Smith, Clifton Hill

Comic opera now and then

I’m reminded of W.S. Gilbert’s words in the comic opera HMS Pinafore in which Sir Joseph Porter, KCB, sings of his rise from humble beginnings as an “office boy to an attorney’s firm” through various stages until he eventually becomes the First Lord of the Admiralty. On the way he spends time in parliament, of which he says, “I always voted at my party’s call and I never thought of thinking for myself at all.”

John MacInnes, Warrnambool

The senator should resign

Australia does not need regression to faith-based politics. The DLP years bear witness to that. Senator Payman was elected to represent West Australians, if she cannot do that she should resign, not be used by others to gain their ends.

Doris LeRoy, Altona