Former dissenting Labor MP backs Fatima Payman and says party needs to reconsider rules
The last federal Labor MP to vote against his party has urged Fatima Payman to “stick to her guns” as the senator faces intense pressure to toe the line on Palestinian statehood or leave Labor.
Federal Labor MPs and senators on Tuesday unanimously endorsed Payman’s indefinite suspension from the party’s parliamentary caucus after the 29-year-old said she would cross the floor again if faced with a similar Senate motion to last week’s vote.
Payman crossed the floor to vote for a Greens motion to recognise Palestine.
On Monday afternoon, Payman said she was reflecting on her future as a Labor senator after claiming she had been “exiled” by the party, ostracised by her colleagues and removed from group chats, internal party bulletins and committees.
The developments have brought back “vivid memories” for Harry Quick, a former Labor MP who was expelled in 2007 and is the federal party’s most recent dissenter.
The 83-year-old, a fervent anti-war politician who sat in the lower house for 15 years, had expressed his opposition to a Howard-era anti-terrorism bill that Labor supported. Quick didn’t physically cross the floor in 2005 but he asked the Hansard to record his decision to vote against it.
Quick claims this decision, and a preselection battle in his former seat of Franklin, were behind why he was kicked out of the ALP in 2007. Officially, Quick was expelled for failing to pay his party membership fees.
“I made a stand and, of course, I ended up sitting as an independent for the last three months of my last term in the house,” Quick told Guardian Australia.
“You become very lonely. People who you consider to be your friends totally ignore you, and some of your so-called close colleagues shun you.
“When you’re part of a family and suddenly totally excluded, it’s a real wake-up call.”
Labor members are bound to decisions made by a majority vote in caucus. The pledge has remained largely the same since 1902. Before Quick, Labor senator George Georges and Kalgoorlie MP Graeme Campbell crossed the floor while Bob Hawke was prime minister. Both were suspended from caucus.
Quick, a former MP for Franklin – whose seat is now held by housing minister Julie Collins – said it was time for Labor to reconsider its rules, noting “society has changed”.
“Issues aren’t black and white any more, and the Labor party should be more flexible and understanding of people who have issues that are really, really important to them,” he said.
Quick said he admired Payman because he knew being “shunned” by friends and colleagues was “not the most pleasant thing”. He urged her not to back down.
“Stick to your guns, stick to your principles. Don’t bend or waver,” Quick said. “I’m sure she’ll find people there who will support her in a time of real mental stress.”
Payman last week voted with the Greens on a motion declaring an urgent need “for the senate to recognise the state of Palestine”.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, had unsuccessfully sought to amend the motion’s wording to specify that recognition of Palestine could occur “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
The minister for government services, Bill Shorten, denied the party had “exiled” Payman but said members were benched if they “can’t agree to the team and the coach’s instructions”.
“I don’t think she’s been intimidated or exiled. I can’t speak for how she’s feeling, that’s up to her, but I can speak towards what I see as the objective conduct of empathetic, committed colleagues,” he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night that Payman “has made the decision that she can’t be bound by what puts our team together”.
“I would like to see her re-join the team and that option is certainly available to her,” he said.
“What I can control is what our response is, that if people aren’t clearly part of the team, and they say and declare that they can’t be part of the team, then they themselves, by their own actions, have excluded themselves.”
Payman has attracted sympathy from Liberal MP Bridget Archer.
Archer, who represents the Tasmanian seat of Bass, has crossed the floor to vote opposite her party almost 30 times. This has been a tough call, even though the Liberal party does not formally expel MPs for taking such a step.
“It can be very difficult, it is isolating and very lonely,” Archer said.
“It is an action that always has consequences even if it is not against the rules and I guess you need to consider and accept that in coming to the decision.”
Archer said she spoke to Payman “briefly during a parliamentary friends event the other day”.
“I certainly feel for what she is experiencing,” Archer said.
“Parliamentarians are human beings and we should remember that and treat people with care.”
