Payman said she had various conversations with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and other caucus colleagues before resigning.
“This has been the most difficult decision of my life and put me in a tough position ... I told the prime minister on multiple occasions and my colleagues that this is a matter I cannot compromise on,” she said.
Labor senator Fatima Payman says will sit as an independent in the Senate.Credit: James Brickwood
Payman claimed she had been subjected to intimidation from her colleagues over her stance.
“Senators [made] it very clear that they didn’t want to sit next to me in the chamber.
“Also just controlling and constantly pushing me for an answer when I hadn’t made a decision about whether I was going to cross the floor.”
This masthead revealed on Tuesday that the previously obscure senator had been in talks with Glenn Druery, an election strategist famous for his work in helping independents get elected, and that discussions were underway about Payman linking up with a new political party. Payman said after announcing her resignation she had no current plans to create or join a new party, but added “stay tuned”.
Senator Fatima Payman takes questions from the media after announcing she has quit the Labor Party.Credit: James Brickwood
Druery has been working with an alliance of Muslim groups who have thrown their support behind Payman, following her decision on June 25 to cross the floor to vote with the Greens on the recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“My decision to cross the floor was the most difficult decision I have had to make, and although each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk these steps by myself, and I know I did not walk them alone,” Payman said during a press conference minutes after the vote.
While she insisted she had acted within “the ethos” of the Labor Party, Payman said in an interview on ABC’s Insiders days later that she would be prepared to cross the floor again.
Labor rules bind caucus members to the party’s collective decisions, and MPs who vote against those risk being thrown out. Foreign Minister and Senate party leader Penny Wong said in an interview last week on Sky that she had voted against the Greens’ attempt to legalise same-sex marriage in 2008 “because I believed in the power of the collective”.
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The prime minister called Payman to The Lodge on Sunday to suspend her from Labor’s caucus and the 29-year-old claimed on Monday she had been “exiled” and intimidated by colleagues furious that she had broken party convention by crossing the floor. She claimed there were attempts to get her to resign from the Senate.
This masthead revealed on Monday that when Albanese summoned Payman to The Lodge, he told her to consider her position as an MP and remember she was in the Senate because of Labor.
Labor MPs unanimously endorsed a motion to suspend Payman from the caucus until she decided she could “respect” party rules, after Albanese said he had shown “strength in compassion” by staring down Coalition demands to sack her.
Government MPs’ dismay at Payman’s actions has turned to anger over the last week after her decision to work with Druery, who is nicknamed the “preference whisperer” and who has worked with a raft of independent and minor party candidates over the last decade, was revealed.
The Muslim alliance plans to run candidates against half-a-dozen Labor MPs in the lower house and the Senate with Payman considered likely to lead the new party.
Her announcement to leave Labor leaves the government a vote down in the Senate, making Labor’s legislative agenda more tricky to navigate.
More to come