On May 15, then Labor senator for Western Australia Fatima Paymann gave a speech in which she broke ranks with her colleagues on the conflict in Gaza, calling Israel’s conduct a “genocide”:
I ask our prime minister and our fellow parliamentarians: how many international rights laws must Israel break for us to say enough? How many lives does it take to call this a genocide?
Since then there has been a great deal of brave commentary in the media from Payman’s Labor colleagues. Except we’re not sure exactly who, because, for whatever reason, no-one seems willing to put their name to it. Here’s Crikey‘s timeline on the well-sourced “background” information filling out the coverage of Payman in recent weeks.
June 25: Payman crosses the floor to vote in favour of a Greens motion in favour of recognising Palestine as a state, later telling the media: “I was not elected as a token representative of diversity. I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father … I walked with my Muslim brothers and sisters who told me they have felt unheard for far too long.”
June 30: After confirming that she would again cross the floor on Palestine during an interview with the ABC, Payman is effectively expelled from the party when she is “indefinitely suspended” from the Labor caucus by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
That evening The West Australian notes Payman had said on Sunday that “she wanted to remain inside [the] Labor caucus” but reports “there were concerns internally that Albanese could look weak if he didn’t come down harder on Senator Payman if there was a second breach of party convention”.
July 3: The Age, noting that Payman has met with “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery, reports:
Privately, Albanese and senior ministers are furious over what now appears to have been a calculated plan by Payman to link up with Druery … to inflict maximum damage on Labor.
One senior MP, who asked not to be named, said there was widespread expectation within Labor that Payman would emerge as the leader of a new Muslim party, and that her position as a senator would make it easier to register the new party.
Phil Coorey at the Australian Financial Review reports that Payman is expected to quit:
The belief in Labor is that Senator Payman is being used by more radical elements of the Muslim community because having an MP already in parliament makes it far easier to establish a political party in terms of registration and other requirements.
‘It’s a totally cynical manipulation of a young Muslim woman,’ said a senior government source.
…
One senior government MP said: ‘It’s diabolical for the Muslim community; it will result in an increase in Islamophobia.’ Several Labor MPs expressed similar concerns.
July 4: Nikki Savva in the Nine papers puts out a piece headlined: “Labor believes Fatima Payman’s rebellion was plotted for a month”. It opens:
Right up until the moment she hit send to distribute her statement asserting she had been exiled, Labor colleagues had been reaching out to Senator Fatima Payman to offer reassurance, tea and sympathy. The last thing they wanted was for her to feel unwanted.
The piece, while naming several Labor figures who had “checked in” on Payman’s well-being in the lead-up to her resignation, features no attributed quotes.
Patricia Karvelas reports in the ABC, attributing “concerns” of, again, unnamed caucus colleagues “about her claims she was being guided by ‘God'”. The piece is later updated to include Payman’s rejection of the implication she was solely motivated by sectarian religious issues.
That afternoon, Payman quits Labor. The ABC reports that she “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”. In response to Payman’s contention that, unlike her colleagues, she knew what it was to suffer, Nine’s national affairs editor James Massola tweets:
He clarifies that “I’m not in a position to tell you who I spoke to obviously as I don’t reveal sources, but I can tell you multiple MPs have contacted me to express their anger about that comment”.
That evening The Australian reports that “Senior Labor figures are raising Fatima Payman’s Afghan citizenship as a risk to her remaining in the Senate because of a potential breach of Section 44 of the constitution”. None of these figures are named. The ALP had previously announced legal advice that indicated Payman, born in Afghanistan, had done enough to renounce her citizenship.
July 6: In a piece headlined “Will Fatima Payman become the Pauline Hanson of the left? That’s up to her”, Nine’s Peter Hartcher reports “Many in Labor share [Payman’s] pain. One Labor minister said after her resignation: ‘The thing that hurts is that there’s not much difference – everyone in Labor wants the war to stop, everyone wants to get to a place where Palestine is recognised.'”
Meanwhile, “Labor figures”, named or otherwise, seemed content to allow a succession of exclusive stories in news.com.au — concerning Paymans investment property, the identity of her husband, her family reunion travel bill and her links with a Barbie-hating religious TV studio — to speak for themselves.
