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'They were like, "They’ll get over it"'
Fatima Payman on Labor, the ceasefire and the election
Alex McKinnon
January 22, 2025
Last week I sat down with Senator Fatima Payman for a half-hour chat over Microsoft Teams, the worst software in the world.
I first got in touch with Payman’s office in November after seeing how she responded to Jason Clare’s round of media appearances in which he suddenly started talking about a ceasefire.
I was banging on the Prime Minister's, Penny Wong’s and other Cabinet Minister's doors for MONTHS saying exactly this and was told to ignore it and toe the line.
When I could no longer do that, I spoke out. For that I was ostracised, booted from the Party and labelled a rat. 1/5… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Fatima Payman (@SenatorPayman)
7:23 AM • Nov 17, 2024
Originally I wanted to ask some general questions about Labor, the genocide and the upcoming federal election. By coincidence, though, the interview ended up happening on January 16, a few hours after the ceasefire was announced.
“Look, it’s definitely heartening, definitely welcome. But the fact that it’s only for six weeks, it’s … y’know,” Payman said. “We’re not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but it’s just insufficient when it comes to addressing the scale of the genocide that we’ve been seeing, frankly. Why [did the ceasefire start on] Sunday? Why not sooner? Why only six weeks instead of being permanent? Hasn’t there been enough bloodshed? Hasn’t there been enough heartache and devastation and destruction?”
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