No intention to expel senator after Palestine defection

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Labor Senator Fatima Payman will likely avoid being expelled from the party after she breached protocol by crossing the floor during a vote on Palestine.

Labor senator crosses the floor  Pic: AAP

The West Australian senator voted against her party in the upper house on Tuesday when she supported a Greens motion to have the Senate declare the recognition of a Palestinian state an urgent matter.

Labor members are expected to follow the party’s position but there is no mandated sanction for crossing the floor.

Asked if she would be expelled, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles replied “we don’t have any intention of doing that”.

“This is not a time to be going around expelling people because they have a particular view on this issue,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

“Senator Payman has made completely clear that she wants to continue to represent the people of Western Australia in the Senate as a Labor senator, and that she continues to espouse Labor values.”

Mr Marles said social cohesion in Australia had been placed under “enormous stress” since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

Opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham said Senator Payman’s actions directly challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s leadership.

His colleague, Senator Jane Hume said the episode showed Mr Albanese was weak on the issue, adding that it was not the first time Senator Payman had defied her leader.

“Only a month ago, she stood up and gave a press conference where she used … and I won’t repeat the phrase, but a phrase that the prime minister himself says incites violence and anti-Semitism,” Senator Hume told Seven.

“How he deals with it is going to be a test of his leadership.”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry also condemned the vote to support Palestinian statehood.

It’s the first time a Labor Party member has crossed the floor since 2005.

AAP