Labor’s Friends of Palestine group has warned of “a chasm” between the Albanese government and “huge swathes of the party’s traditional base” as it described Fatima Payman’s resignation as a symptom of a bigger problem.
A day after the first-term senator quit Labor, to remain in the upper house as an independent, pro-Palestine campaigners complained that Payman had been placed “in an untenable position” by the federal leadership team.
But Anthony Albanese ramped up his criticism of Payman on Friday, disputing her comments that she felt she had “exhausted” channels to raise her concerns inside party forums.
The prime minister acknowledged that the senator for Western Australia had a right to resign from the party, but added: “One of the things I find disappointing about Senator Payman is that … at no stage, no stage, did Senator Payman stand in the caucus and make any comments about the Middle East or about anything else.”
Payman said on Thursday that she had attempted to raise concerns through internal party processes and in direct conversations with Albanese and senior ministers, but felt that decisions were “already made” by the time they were brought to caucus meetings for formal approval.
The Labor Friends of Palestine group – which agitates on the issue within party structures - has backed Payman’s argument that she was authentically representing the views of many rank-and-file party members.
In a statement to Guardian Australia on Friday, the group said Payman’s departure was deeply disappointing to “thousands of rank-and-file ALP and union members and Labor supporters”.
“This event confirms the retreat by the federal Labor leadership from policy voted into the platform by the party’s highest decision-making body: the 2023 national conference,” the group said in a statement.
The Labor platform expresses support for “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders” and “calls on the Australian government to recognise Palestine as a state”.
According to a carefully negotiated form of words that was last endorsed at the national conference last August, the party said in the platform that it “expects that this issue will be an important priority for the Australian government” but it did not set a specific deadline to do so.
The Albanese government reaffirmed this week that its position is to “support the recognition of the State of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
But the Labor Friends of Palestine group contends that the caveat about a peace process amounts to indefinitely delaying recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“The government’s position that Australian recognition must be contingent on a nonexistent ‘peace process’ undermines and nullifies the platform policy,” the group said on Friday.
“It means in effect that this Labor government will never recognise Palestine.”
The group vowed to “continue to campaign in branches, at conferences and in the community for immediate recognition of Palestine and for Australia to meet its international law obligations”.
“We reject any attempt to shut down debate,” the group said.
“There is a chasm between federal Labor’s position and the strongly held views of Labor supporters. Labor’s credibility as the party for social justice, human rights and international law has suffered serious damage.”
Federal government insiders insist the dispute largely boils down to one of timing.
In recent months, the government has shifted its policy incrementally, including by voting in favour of Palestinian membership of the UN in May.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has also indicated Australia is open to recognising Palestine during a peace process, “not necessarily only at the end of the peace process”, while pressing for reforms to the Palestinian Authority.
Earlier this week, when Payman was indefinitely suspended from the federal Labor caucus, Wong attempted to appeal to the party’s progressive base to acknowledge the steps taken by the government to date.
“No Australian government has ever expressed such strong support for Palestinian statehood as this one,” Wong told the Senate on Monday.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said on Friday that she was “really sad” that Payman had decided to leave the Labor party.
In an interview with ABC Radio National, Gallagher sought to characterise the Labor government’s response to the Gaza conflict as a middle ground.
“We have the Liberal party trying to push the pro-Israel [stance], we have the Greens pushing pro-Palestine [positions], and we are in the middle saying, we can only achieve peace in the Middle East if those two – Palestine and Israel – come together as part of a two-state solution,” she said.
Payman’s exit and claims that a new movement called the Muslim Vote will back candidates against Labor have raised concerns in the party that some of its seats with large Muslim populations may be vulnerable at the next election.
In the UK election on Thursday, despite Keir Starmer’s Labour party winning a thumping majority, it also lost four seats to independent candidates standing on an explicitly pro-Palestinian platform.
