Senator Payman Should Resign, Or Be Dis-endorsed by the Prime Minister

The Labor Party is all at sea when it comes to Australia’s relationship with Israel, as demonstrated by yesterday’s shameful statements from Senator for Western Australia, Fatima Payman.

“My conscience has been uneasy for far too long, and I must call this out for what it is: this is a genocide, and we need to stop pretending otherwise,” Senator Payman said, concluding her statement with, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Her statements came just days afier the Prime Minister argued that the phrase ran counter to the two-state solution favoured by the Government.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a heinous slogan employed by terror groups and extremists since the early years of the State of Israel. It essentially calls for a Palestinian state which extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, where a large proportion of the State of Israel is situated.

The Senator is literally calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, an age-old Australian ally, and for the annihila􀀁on of the 9.6 million who call Israel home. It is an assault on Jewish Australians, and on Australia’s freedom-loving, democratic allies everywhere.

Perhaps Senator Payman’s conscience is uneasy because her position reflects the very sentiments of Hamas and the People’s Front for the Liberal of Palestine. It’s been the declaration of Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran and dictators like Saddam Hussein. And now, it seems, it is the cry of radical leftwing protestors masquerading as Senators of the Australian Labor Party

Let’s not forget why this war began. On October 7, 2023, approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, kidnapping around 250 hostages and murdering 1,200 innocent men, women and children. Hamas terrorists employed rape and sexual violence as weapons of war, as well as torture, confinement, and a litany of other breaches of the Rome Statute – simply because the victims were Jewish. Those are the substantiated war crimes with Senator Payman and the Government she represents continue to fail to recognise.

Senator Payman Must Resign

As a Member of the Joint Standing Commi􀀃ee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Senator Payman plays an important role in Australia’s foreign policy development process. She must withdraw from that committee.

Senator Payman also holds executive roles in two parliamentary committees, as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Publications and as Deputy Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Publications. She must step down from those positions.

To echo the war-cries and slogans of terror groups is despicable and demeans the office of an Australian Senator. I call on Senator Payman to reconsider her position as a Senator in the Australian Parliament.

Anthony Albanese Must Step Up

My concern, however, is that we have heard very little from the Prime Minister. The PM said that Senator Fatima Payman’s comments were “not appropriate” and that we ought to focus on a two-state solution.

Where is the condemnation? Has Anthony Albanese picked up the phone to correct Senator Payman? If not, why not?

The PM’s failure to respond in a decisive, meaningful, and unequivocal manner simply reiterates the mixed messages which have marked Labor’s approach to the Australia-Israel relationship. Theirs is a fair-weather friendship.

To that end, I call on the Prime Minister as Leader of the Australian Labor Party to show some guts and expel Senator Fatima Payman from the Parliamentary Australian Labor Party caucus.