Anthony Albanese tiptoes through political tulips when it comes to one of his Labor senators breaking party rules and switching parties on the Palestine issue.
Washington Labor senator Fatima Payman defied both her prime minister and her party when she sided with the Greens in a motion to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Yes, the Labor rule of maintaining the collective and not voting against the party is set in stone. Theoretically at least. And yes, the Prime Minister explicitly condemned the Greens for stoking violence on issues related to Palestine and Israel.
But these principles matter less than raw political decision-making. Albo is struggling to balance competing interests on this controversial issue within his own party. This is reminiscent of the challenges President Joe Biden faces within America’s Democrats.
Criticizing the 29-year-old Australian senator for what she did would only have increased tensions within the Labor Party.
So, on Wednesday morning, he chose weakness by refusing to exclude him from the party – but for strategic reasons.
Senator Fatima Payman (pictured, with David Pocock) crossed the floor and voted against her party, in violation of party rules.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) only selectively applies the rules when it suits him. For now, he’s fine with not expelling a young senator for breaking them
For starters, she’s a young diversity senator. The last thing the 61-year-old prime minister wanted to be seen doing was applying party rules to destroy her career.
It is one thing to expel an aging union official like CFMEU boss John Setka from the party for breaking the rules.
However, doing so to a young Palestine advocate would have infuriated activist voters and party members with whom Albo does not want to fight.
Not as he counts down to an election where every vote could count.
Expelling Senator Payman from Labor for switching parties – which the rules require doing – would have split the factions, given the increase in support for the Greens at Labor’s expense.
This would likely have only increased tensions within beleaguered Labor electorates across the country. The prime minister highlighted the damage caused to his party’s election offices by Palestinian protesters.
Palestinian protesters unhappy with Labor government’s response to Israel-Hamas war
Likewise, given that Albo relies on the support of left-wing factions to maintain his dominance within the party as leader, taking action against the good senator from Washington would have been a risky affair on that front as well.
If the elections are close and the Prime Minister returns, leading a minority government, how lenient will the left faction be the next time it seeks to betray some of its political values?
The Labor left currently has the feeling of not being sufficiently heard on the Palestinian question. The Prime Minister must continually fight to meet his demands without losing the mainstream or the majority of the right.
While it is true that by not reprimanding her for acting against the rules there is a risk of imitation by others in the months and years to come, Albo hopes to be able to manage such circumstances according to their own merits, far from dazzling eyes. The issue is currently being received.
Certainly, this is not the first time that a Labor MP has changed parties without being reprimanded for doing so. Harry Quick did so in 2005, as did Graeme Campbell in 1988. In both cases, political pragmatism took precedence over rules, although Campbell still ended up leaving the party.
Over the years, many others have been fired for breaking party rules.
While I have long disagreed with Labour’s approach of stifling the conscientious right of its MPs and Senators to change parties without risk of expulsion from the party, as and when it suits them, the existence of such rules only matters if they are enforced when it does not suit them.
Senator Fatima Payman (pictured) sided with the Greens in a Senate vote to recognize Palestine as a state.
Not just when it is appropriate to use them to suppress dissent in the name of superficial party unity. Or to rid the party of members it wants to get rid of.
Selective rule-following is akin to an anarchic process driven by leaders who choose.
Would Albo be so relaxed if one of his MPs crossed the floor during a debate on nuclear energy, for example?
Labor MPs would never switch sides on this issue because they know Albo would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
The exact opposite of his response to Senator Payman.
This is how politics too often works: power and pragmatism take precedence over principles. Whether one agrees with her or not, at least Senator Payman has remained true to her principles.
A rarity in modern politics.
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