Albanese disciplines Fatima Payman over Gaza vote, hours after deputy PM appeared to rule it out
The prime minister said Payman will not sit with the Labor caucus for this week and the next, as the Greens plan another Gaza motion.
On Tuesday, for the first time in decades, a sacrosanct Labor rule was broken: don’t vote against the party.
By Wednesday, senior members of Anthony Albanese's government were insisting that senator Fatima Payman will face no sanction for defying her party by backing a Greens motion to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
But hours later, the prime minister told Parliament he had met with Payman that morning and said the first-term senator will not join her Labor colleagues at caucus for this sitting session – amounting to one meeting next week.
Capital Brief has confirmed the decision was made by Albanese, not Payman.
It's unclear whether it qualifies as a de facto suspension from the party – something Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles had ruled out – or what it achieves on a practical level. Payman sat with her colleagues in the Senate on Wednesday and remains a member of the party, but has been considering her future.
