Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has asked WA senator Fatima Payman not to attend Labor’s caucus meetings after she crossed the floor to support a Greens motion calling on the Senate to recognise the state of Palestine.
However, the first-term senator remains a member of the Labor Party and part of the caucus in the longer term.
While a Government spokesperson said in the wake of the vote on Tuesday night that there was no “mandated sanction” in the circumstances amid speculation she would be expelled from the party, Mr Albanese revealed on Wednesday he had asked her not to come to caucus “for the rest of this session”.
Next week is the final sitting before Parliament rises for a five-week winter break.
The Prime Minister intends that Senator Payman not attend any meeting — generally only held on Tuesdays of sitting weeks – before that break, but the length of the suspension was not as clear in her understanding.
The Greens forced a vote in the Senate on Tuesday night asking the chamber to recognise the state of Palestine.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong sought to amend this to say Australia would recognise Palestine as part of an enduring peace process that supported a two-state solution.
Mr Albanese said that was a principled position and in line with Labor’s broader stance.
“It’s beyond me why the Greens political party or the Liberal Party or the National Party did not support that position,” he said.
“‘From the river to the sea’ refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. The problem with from the river to the sea being one state, whether just Israel or just Palestine, is that it denies the existence of the other peoples and denies the need for a two-state solution, which is why I have consistently opposed it.
“I have consistently supported two states, Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace and security and that is the Australian Labour Party’s position. And I’m proud of it.”
Senator Payman has previously used the “from the river to the sea” phrase while labelling Israel’s attacks on Gaza a genocide and urging Australia to do more.
She said after Tuesday’s vote that crossing the floor had been the hardest decision she had ever made.
But she committed to continuing to represent the people of Western Australia who had elected her as a Labor senator.
She also invoked Labor luminaries Paul Keating, Bob Hawke and Gough Whitlam to say she was acting in line with the party’s long-held ethos.
Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the party would handle the internal division maturely.
“The way in which we’re being guided in terms of how we’re handling it is really about how we’ve been tackling the issue of social cohesion within this country since October 7,” he said.
“We want to bring Australians together and we want Australians to see a Government that is living that. And we don’t do that by going around and expelling people because they have particular views on this issue.”
However, some Labor MPs have grown increasingly frustrated with how Senator Payman has expressed her pro-Palestine position without following established internal procedures.
Even those sympathetic to her position believe there had to be consequences for crossing the floor.
But others say Labor is a better party for having people like Senator Payman within its ranks.
The Opposition seized on the issue to demand Labor MPs cross the floor on other issues, such as ending live sheep exports.
“If Senator Payman is prepared to stand up for the people of Palestine, I would have thought the Western Australian senators would stand up for farmers in Western Australia,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said.