Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis from Laura Tingle.
JAMES PATERSON, LIBERAL SENATOR: Given the opportunity of a guillotine, they haven’t listed it.JACQUI LAMBIE, JACQUI LAMBIE NETWORK: You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves today.LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: While tensions in Australia over what is happening in Gaza and Israel have grown these past nine months, the Albanese Government has been at pains to say that it wanted to protect social cohesion.
JOSH BURNS, LABOR MP: I desperately want to see the people of Gaza being able to rebuild their lives in dignity and in peace, to be able to move freely, to have freedom of speech. To be able to have a future for their children. In the House of Representatives, the Government was trying to get legislation introduced and debated, but the conflict in the Middle East also made its way there, too.
LAURA TINGLE: The wording of the motion was identical to that put forward by Labor last week as an amendment to the Greens motion on which Senator Payman crossed the floor. ALLEGRA SPENDER, INDEPENDENT MP: We are not actually achieving anything in terms of the difference it will make to the people in the conflict right now.LAURA TINGLE: Just as community and political tensions have grown over events in the Middle East so, it seems, have tensions between Australia and Israel.
LAURA TINGLE: The picture Senator Payman painted this afternoon was of a politician who had gradually become disillusioned with the Government’s position on Gaza, but who had not considered crossing the floor to vote with another party until the Greens put forward a motion on recognition of Palestine.
REPORTER: Can you elaborate, Senator, on what the suggestion that you are being guided by God in your decision making and will you campaign on other Islamic/Muslim type of issues? FATIMA PAYMAN: From incarceration rates of Indigenous people to locking up kids as young as 10 years old. From the rising cost-of-living pressures to families living in cars and tents due to the housing crisis. From a struggling to put food on the table and pay the bills, to the climate crisis.
RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: I think it’s really important that we do everything we can to take the temperature down here. KATY GALLAGHER: I reached out to her this afternoon. I could see that she was a bit upset in the chamber, so I reached out and wanted to make sure she was taking care of herself.
In a sense I think the fact that she removed herself really from contact with her colleagues had worried us and so we had been reaching out. And people were trying to reach out, but I understand this is a lonely business sometimes, particularly when you're feeling that you want to isolate yourself or you are isolated.
KATY GALLAGHER: My understanding is she probably has about four years as a senator to go on her term. She was elected as a Labor senator and so, I mean, only she can really answer that. She is an elected senator of the Parliament. And so, if it was me, I wouldn't stay in the Parliament. I would feel an obligation to the Labor Party.
KATY GALLAGHER: Well, I certainly know she had been engaging with a number of ministers on this as many of her caucus colleagues have. I mean this is, as everyone in the community understands, nobody wants to see war in the Middle East. Everyone wants the war to end. SARAH FERGUSON: So, are you dissatisfied with the way that she then has handled her views? We don't doubt the sincerity. This is not a question about the sincerity of her views but the way she handled the communication of those views to senior members of the party?
SARAH FERGUSON: But wouldn't you expect that on such an important moral question that someone would take advice from wherever they can get it? Does that actually undermine the case that she's making? And when you look at the difference, the actual policy difference, is not very great at all in the sense the argument was over recognising Palestine or recognising Palestine as part of a two-state solution.
Fatima Payman Labor Party Katy Gallagher Independent Senator Gaza Palestine
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Labor senator Fatima Payman 'indefinitely suspended' from Labor Party caucusLabor senator Fatima Payman has been 'indefinitely suspended' from the Labor Party caucus by the prime minister after a series of defiant actions regarding her support for Palestine.
Read more »
Labor senator Fatima Payman quits party committee in further sign of isolationThe senator also stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees last week after comments accusing Israel of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.
Read more »
Labor senator Fatima Payman quits party committee in further sign of isolationThe senator also stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees last week after comments accusing Israel of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.
Read more »
Labor senator Fatima Payman quits party committee in further sign of isolationThe senator also stepped down from two parliamentary foreign affairs committees last week after comments accusing Israel of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza.
Read more »
Senator Fatima Payman quits LaborThe prime minister summoned her 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.
Read more »
Senator Fatima Payman quits Labor, remains in Senate as independentRebel senator Fatima Payman has quit the Labor Party after creating a political firestorm with her decision to vote against the government over recognising Palestinian statehood.
Read more »