Fatima Payman is just the latest shrill Labor activist disguised as a politician to believe igniting old-world turf wars is more important than properly serving their electorate, writes Caroline Di Russo.
It was an opportunity both my parents’ families took up in the 1950s, leaving behind the aftermath of post-war Italy.
They never asked for anything except an opportunity to work and build a future for their families.
They assimilated, learned English, had Australian friends and got involved in their local communities.
They became part of the cultural fabric of this country.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “tried to handle” Senator Fatima Payman’s defection the “very best way possible”.
Ms Payman left the Labor Party after being indefinitely suspended when she warned she was prepared to cross the floor again regarding Palestine.
“I thought the suspension was the right way to go; it was saying you are welcome, Fatima, and let’s give you a bit of time and space to work it through – clearly, that’s not where her head was at, she’s walked,” Mr Shorten told Sky News Australia.
“I don’t think there’s anything else the Prime Minister could have done, frankly.”
Sure, we still practise our traditions, most of which are directly or indirectly related to food.
But we never demanded others change their culture to accommodate ours.
And thankfully, like many others who migrated here, regional prejudices and old-world turf wars were left back on the continent.
As they should be.
Since the October 7 terrorist attacks, it has been instructive to see how views on the Israel and Palestine conflict have punctuated our political discourse and often distracted from fundamental domestic policy issues.
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The discourse has often been histrionic and not reflective of the reality of the situation.
Similarly, the recent defection of Senator Fatima Payman from the Labor party and the anticipated electoral impact of “the Muslim vote” has ignited a conversation about how multiculturalism informs and influences our political landscape.
In relation to Senator Payman, the simple fact is that caucus solidarity is not-negotiable within the Labor party.
It’s not a nice-to-have – it is demanded, it is enforced and apostates are treated accordingly.
Fatima Payman is just the latest shrill Labor activist disguised as a politician to believe igniting old-world turf wars is more important than serving their electorate, writes Caroline Di Russo. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman
It turns out that self-righteous moral superiority doesn’t exempt you from that prevailing rule nor from its consequences.
And while Payman may have a personal view on this issue, she appears to forget she was elected on a Labor ticket to represent the people of Western Australia.
She is not the local member for Khan Younis.
She is not the foreign affairs minister – she is a first term back-bencher with plenty to prove and a lot to learn.
Negotiators from the United States and Egypt have arrived in Qatar to work towards a ceasefire deal.
It comes as Israeli troops are once again pushing into Gaza City with the IDF saying troops are regrouping in the area.
Israel has so far rejected any agreement that would force an end to the war with Hamas intact.
Ironically, by her defecting, her career in the Senate will be short and I expect wholly unremarkable.
She has defended her decision to defect by saying that “her community” was upset at the lack of action on Gaza.
I’m not entirely sure who “her community” is, but I wager that West Australians are heavily concerned about the cost of living, housing and jobs and less so by a foreign provincial conflict.
Payman either needs to engage more broadly with the community in WA to properly understand its priorities or be honest and admit that she is a one-trick ideological agitator.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced an envoy to work on the “issue of antisemitism”, says Sky News host Steve Price.
Mr Price said he can’t work out “what this all means”.
“It’s probably a diversion to get people to stock talking about Fatima Payman.”
Ultimately, the situation in the Middle East is highly complex and long-term.
It is not going to be progressed or solved by a first-term politician 10,000km away bleating about genocide.
The arrogance is staggering.
There is a growing split within Labor, and the progressive left more broadly, between the pragmatic advocates for peace in that region and the shrill and petulant activists.
The first group understands that if it was easy, it would’ve been fixed already.
Young Labor branches are revolting against the Albanese government’s treatment of Senator Fatima Payman.
Ms Payman gained notoriety within the Labor party for breaking party convention and crossing the floor on a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian Statehood.
Anthony Albanese’s foundational faction – the New South Wales Young Labor Left – will host Senator Payman as a special guest next week.
Meanwhile, the latter thinks you change the world by wailing into megaphones and vandalising public monuments.
I rarely quote Gough Whitlam approvingly, but he was exactly right when he said only the impotent are pure.
This is a salutary lesson that Payman and other activists must learn if they are in fact interested in substantive change rather than wispy slogans.
Payman isn’t the only one, she is just the only one daft enough to cross the floor.
Those MPs occupying seats in Western Sydney, and who no doubt watched the UK election with a grimace on their face, will appreciate that should any bloc Muslim vote abandon Labor, it will have material and direct electoral impacts.
Sky News host Andrew Bolt has labelled Senator Fatima Payman as the parliament’s “unofficial Member for Gaza”.
“Last week, in Canberra, Labor Senator Fatima Payman quit the party to become our Parliament’s unofficial Member for Gaza,” Mr Bolt said.
“She said she couldn’t stay in Labor when it wasn’t doing enough for Gaza.”
In this quandary for the Labor party some are ideological on the issue, and some are simply interested in electoral survival and will turn a blind eye if they need to.
And it isn’t just Labor.
Greens senator, Mehreen Faruqi, was asked four times by David Speers on Insiders this past Sunday if Hamas should be disbanded and she failed on all those occasions to clearly say that it should be.
She acknowledged Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation – but then engaged in a masterclass of denialism trying to split hairs between the recognition of a Palestinian state and who holds the reins.
Liberal MP Aaron Violi discusses how the Labor government has been too focused on internal party matters.
“We’ve seen consistently with this government that they haven’t been focused on the cost of living and the economy,” Mr Violi told Sky News Australia.
“We’ve seen for the last two weeks, and realistically since the budget, the Prime Minister and other senior ministers have been focused on internal matters, internal Labor Party matters, and Senator Payman is at the front of that, and that’s what their focus has been on.”
Similarly, her dismissive aside that the defacement of the Australian War Memorial was simply “some paint on a building” bares the jaundiced disrespect which she, and her party, holds for our nation, its rich cultural heritage and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could live in a free liberal democracy.
At best, Faruqi is undeserving of serving in our parliament. At worst, she’s kerosene on the fire of societal decay.
Yesterday’s announcement from the Prime Minister establishing a Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism is evidently a tacit admission of his failure to lead at a time when our social cohesion is being challenged.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese introduces Labor’s candidate for the Queensland electorate of Forde Rowan Holzberger.
“It’s a great honour to be running for election led by my very good friend Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,” Mr Holzberger said.
“I am running because I want to do what I can to improve the living standards for the people in our community.”
A special envoy would be totally unnecessary had the Prime Minister come down hard on anti-Semitism when it really mattered, instead of fence sitting and trying to prioritise domestic political imperatives ahead of the cultural health of the nation.
Labor and the progressive left have met a serious cultural and electoral hurdle. And they need to decide which pony they are riding.
Because encouraging sectarianism has never led to positive, unifying outcomes.
Caroline Di Russo is a lawyer with 15 years of experience specialising in commercial litigation and corporate insolvency and since February 2023 has been the Liberal Party President in Western Australia.