A Labor senator has been suspended after vowing to again cross the floor if a motion supporting an independent Palestinian state is brought back before parliament.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asserted his authority today after Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman foreshadowed breaching caucus solidarity rules again.
“If the same motion on recognising the state of Palestine was to be brought forward tomorrow, I would cross the floor,” she told the ABC’s Insiders today.
She could have been suspended or expelled then but was instead suspended from caucus for a week after a dressing down from Albanese she described as “stern but fair”.
“That’s the prerogative and the decision that the prime minister came to,” she said today, of her suspension.
“And you know, when I made the decision on the Senate floor to cross, I did it with the understanding that this could lead to expulsion and costing my Labor membership.”
The prime minister summoned her to the Lodge this afternoon, furious that she would divert the government from its focus on the cost of living.
He suspended her indefinitely from the Labor caucus, telling the senator she could only return to the party room when she respects Labor’s rules of solidarity.
“By her own actions and statements, Senator Payman has placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating in the federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus,” told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“If Senator Payman decides she will respect the caucus and her Labor colleagues, she can return, but until then Senator Payman is suspended from the right to participate in federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus meetings and processes.”
Payman told 9News she would respond publicly tomorrow, but for now she will sit as a rogue senator on the crossbench.
Earlier, she told Insiders she wanted to remain in the Labor Party.
