Fatima Payman is no longer a Labour senator. After the Prime Minister practically dared her to leave the party, she finally did so this afternoon.
It is difficult to understand what exactly led Anthony Albanese to back her into such a corner that she had no choice but to leave the ALP.
How did he get it into his head that the 29-year-old Labour senator was always plotting to stab her party in the back and cross the party?
Because that is what he accused her of having done in recent days, something the senator flatly rejected in her press conference.
That’s a pretty serious accusation to level at someone.
Claiming she was always hell-bent on taking a stand, just to embarrass the government so she could walk away from it like a martyr and do what exactly?
To remain alone in the independent seat for another four years in the Senate. It is hard to imagine that this was her goal from the beginning.
Fatima Payman sensationally left the Labour Party on Thursday afternoon
I don’t think we can blame her for the crisis in Gaza.
Nor can we suggest that she timed her political campaign perfectly to exploit them as an issue she could use to distract from Labour’s communications strategy, selling tax cuts from 1 July.
Albo was the most offended by this: the distraction his convictions had provided to his strategy of promoting government cost-of-living relief.
Payman’s husband works for a Labor minister in Western Australia. She had had ambitions to pursue a political career for some time before landing the third spot on the Labor Party’s list for the Senate in Western Australia.
Albo’s grand conspiracy simply makes no sense.
The Greens already have two seats in Washington. There is no place for Payman to join them unless a current senator retires.
She is also unlikely to be the most popular candidate in a conservative state like WA, which is running for re-election under the banner of pro-Palestinian activism.
However, the Prime Minister handled this whole saga so badly that the result is what we are all witnessing now.
As part of his effort to corner her, he used the media to demand that if she resigned from the Labor Party she should also leave the Senate so that her seat could be filled by someone else within the party.
As if that were going to happen. But the fact that he asked for it publicly increased the irreconcilable differences between Payman and his prime minister.
An overreaction to Albo’s initial attempt to water down the significance of Payman breaking party rules and impersonating someone else.
Although Albo was harsh and swift in his condemnation of Payman, other Labour MPs and senators used the media to claim that all she had to do was put her convictions aside and play the team game.
In other words, don’t cross the line to support causes you believe in. Wear your diversity on your sleeve as symbolism, of course, but don’t live by it or defend it when it matters.
What a joke and what an embarrassment to the modern Labour Party!
The big conspiracy theory about Fatima Payman makes no sense
Expulsion from a party for crossing the line on a matter of conscience is an outdated rule. It was obsolete decades ago, much less so now.
Younger, free-thinking voters who find traditional tribalism utterly stupid cannot be impressed by what they have witnessed here.
The Prime Minister has cornered Payman and now all his votes are at stake, not just his vote on the Palestine question.
Which, by the way, is not important from a political point of view. It is only important for her and for anyone else who takes an activist stance on the issue.
Rather than simply tolerate a difference of opinion on a matter of deep personal importance to Payman, Albo demanded that he put aside his convictions and do exactly as he demanded. Payman denounced the bully’s tactics.
I may not agree with her on this issue, but I admire her willingness to stand up to the treatment she has endured.
The role model Labor suggested Payman should follow was Penny Wong, who for years remained publicly silent on the ALP’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
And look what happened in the end, they said, success! Same-sex marriage became law. Follow Penny’s example, they said, it worked for her.
Wait a minute.
Penny Wong put her beliefs on same-sex marriage aside for years as Labour MPs supported her behind closed doors but lacked the courage to try to legislate change.
Wong remained silent despite being openly gay and in a long-term relationship with someone he loved and wanted to marry, defrauding the gay community in the process.
Is that worthy of admiration?
The Labour Party has held up Penny Wong as a role model for Fatima Payman. Wong has put her beliefs on same-sex marriage on hold for years.
Why? Because she won a personal promotion in the party for not having defended an issue so important to her? Bravo.
Or does Wong’s failure to advocate same-sex marriage make her a role model, because it took a coalition government to finally enact it when Labor never even tried during its 2007-2013 period in power?
For the record, I first advocated for same-sex marriage in 2003, with one of the first op-eds I ever wrote.
It is hard to believe that Labour MPs could seriously think that making it appear that Wong has not stood up for his beliefs would be attractive to someone like Payman.
More precisely, it is a perfect example of how politics can compromise even the virtuous.
And that the Labour Party’s rules stifle convictions in the name of meaningless collective solidarity.
