Key Points
- Senator Fatima Payman has been indefinitely suspended after declaring her intention to cross floor again.
- She said she believes she upheld the party’s views with a conscience vote on the issue of Palestinian statehood.
- It is unclear if Payman will remain at the ALP.
Maybe. The potential for an invitation to go across to be seen as a craven political point scoring exercise over an issue as catastrophic as this could damage perceptions of the party’s sincerity in their actions.
For instance,
The Greens purport to want higher Palestinian autonomy, ending with Statehood, but they don’t have the numbers themselves to affect Australia’s policy. Ergo, they need to negotiate with other parties to push towards their desired outcome, their best partner in this is currently Labor; so should they royally piss off their best partner in this matter by poaching a few members of Labor who are most in line with the Greens on this one issue.
Also,
Senator Payman is also pushing in the same direction as the Greens on this matter, but inside the Labor tent, that also has some value.