Labor senator Fatima Payman has confirmed she is leaving the party to sit as an independent.
As reported by the ABC earlier on Thursday afternoon, the senator confirmed she will not be joining any Muslim community-linked party.
She said she was “deeply torn” over the decision and continued to believe in the principles of the Labor Party, but felt she could see “no middle ground” that would allow her to remain in the party.
“On one hand, I have the immense support of the rank and file [Labor party] members, the unionists, the lifelong members, the party volunteers who are calling on me to hang in there and to make change happen internally,” she said.
“On the other hand, I am pressured to conform to caucus solidarity and toe the party line.
“My conscience leaves me no choice,” she said.
Senator Payman said her resignation would take immediate effect and that she had already informed the prime minister.
The first-term senator from Western Australia was “indefinitely suspended” from the Labor caucus, where MPs discuss the government’s agenda and tactics, last week after she defied the party and voted with the Greens to call for the recognition of Palestinian statehood — and then vowed to do so again if necessary.
Senator Payman will now sit on the crossbench, meaning the government will need an additional vote in the Senate in order to pass legislation if it is not supported by the opposition.
Labor speculation about new party quashed
Senator Payman quashed speculation coming from the Labor Party that she would join forces with The Muslim Vote, a grassroots organisation which says it plans to endorse independents with pro-Palestinian stances in several Labor-held seats.
That speculation was linked to the fact that Senator Payman is being advised by minor party “whisperer” Glenn Druery, who has also been advising Muslim community groups about political campaigns.
Senator Payman confirmed she had spoken to the group about their plans but had not discussed joining them.
“I don’t have any intentions of collaborating with them,” she said.
But she added she supported The Muslim Vote’s efforts to track statements of Labor MPs on Palestine, which it does on its website, calling it educational and suggesting it would “empower people to make decisions.”
In Question Time on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he believed Senator Payman had been pursuing a “strategy” related to her departure dating back at least a month.
But Senator Payman told the ABC she believed the party was spreading that perception because it was upset with her actions.
‘Insulting’ to suggest religion a motivation
Senator Payman said the suggestion she was “being guided by god” in her decision-making and would campaign on other “Islamic propositions” was an insult.
“I don’t know how to respond to that question without feeling offended or insulted [at the suggestion] that just because I am a visibly Muslim woman I only care about Muslim issues.
“This topic on Palestinian recognition, Palestinian liberation is a matter that has impacted everyone with a conscience. It is not just a Jewish versus Muslim issue.”
She added she planned to pursue “various issues that Western Australians have raised with me” beyond the Palestinian issue, listing “incarceration rates of indigenous people… locking up kids as young as 10 years old… [and] the rising cost of living pressures to families living in cars and tents due to the housing crisis.”
Payman alleges intimidation from colleagues, ultimatum from PM
Payman offered stinging criticism of her Labor colleagues, saying she had experienced “intimidation… on many fronts”.
She lashed the prime minister for summoning her to his residence last Sunday “almost on show for everyone to see what was happening … I received many messages from people who shouldn’t have known what was going on”.
She added she believed the prime minister had given her an ultimatum in that meeting that she should either vote with the party or leave it, and leave the Senate, an account which Mr Albanese has denied.
Asked if he had lied, Senator Payman said that was “for the prime minister to answer”.
“I purely remember being given that option of you either stay and you toe the party line, or you give up the position because you don’t believe in caucus solidarity,” she said.
“I don’t have the transcript in my brain, but from what I remember that’s what the exchange was.”
She added the conversation was “stern but fair” and one that “had to happen”.
Asked by the opposition in Question Time whether he had been “intimidatory” towards Senator Payman in that Sunday meeting, the Mr Albanese said he had not.
She accused Labor Senate colleagues of “making it very clear they didn’t want to sit next to [her] in the chamber” and “invading that space that I have,” as well as “controlling and constantly pushing [her] for an answer” on the day she was to cross the floor.
She repeated her assertion made on the day of that decision that she made it “on the Senate floor as the [vote] was being called.”
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