'We must punish Labor'

On Tuesday, Labor Senator for Western Australia Fatima Payman crossed the floor of parliament to vote in favour of a Greens motion calling on the Senate to recognise a Palestinian state.

The motion failed after Labor and the Coalition voted against it, but Payman’s decision to go against her party was historic. Only three federal Labor politicians have crossed the floor since 1986; Labor policy states that any MP who crosses the floor can be expelled from the party, although deputy leader Richard Marles has said Payman will not face expulsion.

Speaking outside the Senate chamber after the vote, Payman said she was “proud of what I did today”.

“I was not elected as a token representative of diversity, I was elected to serve the people of Western Australia and uphold the values instilled in me by my late father,” she said. “Today I have made a decision that would make him proud and make everyone proud to err on the side of humanity.”

Mahmud Hawila is a barrister at Black Chambers, a former state prosecutor and ex-police officer. Last year, Hawila represented Jews Against the Occupation and Palestine Action Group Sydney, the organisers of the Palestinian solidarity protest outside the Sydney Opera House in October, in their successful legal challenge against the NSW Police ban on their organising further actions. He has been advising pro-Palestinian protest groups in an informal capacity ever since, and has become a prominent voice in Sydney’s Palestine justice movement.

He says that Payman’s crossing the floor is a watershed moment for campaign groups like The Muslim Vote, Vote 4 Palestine and Muslim Votes Matter, which are working together to unseat MPs like Jason Clare in Blaxland, Tony Burke in Watson, Anne Stanley in Werriwa, Maria Vamvakinou in Calwell and Chris Bowen in McMahon.

“Senator Payman has shown us what true political leadership looks like,” he says. “She has also shown that Labor does not care for diversity or even want our brightest stars. All they want are people who will toe the line at any cost. They want people who are willing to be accomplices in genocide.”

Hawila says that these groups are now working on building “tailored grassroots campaigns” against MPs like Clare and Burke, and will “run candidates who actually reflect the voters in each electorate” at the next federal election.

“Each group sprung up entirely organically from grassroots movements, and have been working closely together to fix a clear problem: Our political leadership is simply not representing our values,” Hawila says. “Not just the values of Muslims, but values of concern to all Australians — Gaza and [the] genocide in particular. This is where communities are saying we must punish Labor. This is our common purpose.”

Besides seats with large Muslim communities in western Sydney and north and southeast Melbourne, the campaign groups have compiled lists of seats to target at upcoming federal and state elections across the country.

“This is a national movement,” Hawila says. “I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all. We have built this Labor punishing machine to achieve one purpose: to set the right discourse because our government has lost its way. We have a moral obligation to mobilise and call out the injustice we are seeing. We are grassroots. The people are with us. The results will follow.”

Hawila says that campaign groups did not reach the decision to actively oppose Labor lightly.

“Years of [living in] Labor safe seats has led to us being taken for granted,” he says. “Tokenistic gestures and concerned language are not good enough. Where are our political parties heading toward? Is it a cult which serves lobby groups or is it a party that is meant to reflect the views of its constituency and needs and values of society?”

While the party has said little publicly about the prospect of facing challengers at the next election based on its stance on Gaza, Labor figures have accused pro-Palestinian protesters who have targeted MPs’ offices of intimidation and antisemitism.

Hawila is confident, however, that any Labor efforts to undermine pro-Palestinian activism will backfire.

“We can see scare tactics coming from a mile away and we are not fazed at all,” he says. “Public opinion across Australia has woken up to mainstream media and its agendas. Just like Labor no longer reflects public sentiment, neither do mainstream media outlets. We have the utmost trust that the public will see through the scare campaigns for the reality of what they are.”

Become a paid subscriber

If you’d like to further support this newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. I don’t paywall anything, but paid subscriptions help pay the bills and let me keep doing this work.

What I’m looking at

• Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war

• Dear world, Sudan needs your help. Why are you ignoring us?

• What is Hasbara?