‘People vote for parties’: Shorten attacks Payman

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “tried to handle” Senator Fatima Payman’s defection “in the best way possible”. Ms Payman left the Labor Party after being suspended indefinitely when she warned she was prepared to cross the line again in relation to Palestine. “I thought suspension was the right way to go – it was to say you’re welcome, Fatima, and we’ll give you a bit of time and space to sort it out – clearly that wasn’t what he had in mind, he left,” Shorten told Sky News Australia. “Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything more the prime minister could have done.”

Senator Payman officially resigned from the Labor Party last Thursday, ending speculation about her future following Premier Anthony Albanese’s decision to indefinitely exile her from the parliamentary group.

The rebel senator had earlier revealed her intention to walk across parliament again if motions recognising the State of Palestine were put to a vote, in open defiance of the Labour party line.

Following her departure from the party, it was revealed that Senator Payman was meeting with controversial political adviser Glenn Druery as part of an apparent effort to plot her next steps.

Speaking to Sky News Australia on Sunday, Shorten warned that such a move might be ill-advised, claiming the rebel senator was risking the end of her political ambitions.

“The Senate is full of people who have followed the advice of Glenn Druery; sometimes they stand up, but in the end they fail,” he warned.

Senator Payman has also faced calls for her to resign from parliament altogether, with critics pointing out that she ran for office as a member of the Labour Party and not as an independent.

While Shorten declined to fully endorse those calls, he suggested that “the majority” of party members would have chosen to leave Parliament if they found themselves in the same position.

“If I say she should do it, then I’ll be watching her; if I say she shouldn’t do it, then we’ll reward her,” he argued.

“All I can say is that that is up to him. I know that I and most of my colleagues understand that we are elected under the banner of the Labour Party.

“However charming and charismatic individual candidates may be, people vote for parties quite often and if I decided to leave Labour, which I will never do, I would resign my seat.”

Speculation has also grown that Senator Payman could face a Supreme Court challenge over her eligibility to sit in Parliament, given that she had Afghan citizenship, but the Minister of Government Services would not comment on the rumours.

However, Mr Shorten defended the Prime Minister’s handling of the saga, arguing that Mr Albanese had tried to give the rebel senator “a bit of time and space” to think before rejoining the Labor parliamentary group.

“I think the Prime Minister has tried to handle this in the best way possible, he has not overreacted or underreacted,” Shorten said.

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“I thought suspension was the right way to go, to say ‘you’re welcome Fatima and we’re going to give you some time and space to sort it out’.

“It’s clear she wasn’t thinking about that, she left, so I don’t really think there was anything more the Prime Minister could have done, frankly.”

Mr Shorten added that he was “not going to give advice to Fatima Payman” but suggested the rebel senator should carefully consider her next steps if she wanted to remain in Parliament.