Furious Workers’ Party activists have attacked rebel senator Fatima Payman for daring to vote against the party, with one calling her a “traitor” who will remain “forgotten, despised and alone.”
The recently independent senator from Western Australia announced her resignation from the ALP at a press conference in Parliament House on Thursday, after tensions with her former Labor colleagues rose over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Ms Payman accused the Albanian government of failing to take a position on the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza as a result of the Israeli military action launched after the surprise Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 last year.
Since she crossed the party floor to vote for a Palestinian state, and then left the party to sit on the crossbenches, ardent ALP supporters have criticised Ms Payman.
Among the loudest critics was Ben Davison, a trade union activist who has hosted a political podcast for years with his wife, Van Badham, a columnist for The Guardian.
The day Ms Payman announced her departure from the ALP, Mr Davison wrote a scathing X-post.
“We’ve had rats before, we’ll have rats again,” he wrote. “Mostly they’re forgotten, despised, and alone.”
He then pointed out that Ms Payman had won her seat in Western Australia by just 1,600 votes out of a total of 500,000 votes the party had received.
Ben Davison is pictured with his wife Van Badham. They run a political podcast together
Fatima Payman is pictured during her press conference about her resignation on Thursday
“A rat with 1,600 votes, whose only issue is a non-issue to the majority of the people in the state she represents as a Labor senator, will disappear faster than most rats,” he wrote.
In a subsequent comment, he criticised Ms Payman’s comments about her experiences fleeing to Pakistan from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before her family settled as refugees in Perth.
“My family did not flee a war-torn country to come here as refugees so that I would not have to remain silent when I saw innocent people being abused,” she said during her news conference on Thursday, fighting back tears.
Mr Davison wrote: ‘And to say that she is the only person in the Labour party whose (sic) known hardships are the embodiment of an arrogant, self-serving lie.
“She is a petulant, childish individualist who has betrayed her party and Western Australia. She should now resign and stand as an independent candidate in the election.”
Ms Payman did not indicate that she was the only person in the group who had to deal with setbacks.
Ben Davison slams Fatima Payman for leaving Labor Party (pictures of posts)
Another ALP supporter, Matt Martin, also criticised the senator for crossing the floor (pictured)
Another X user, Matt Martin, agreed: ‘I have been involved in many of the ALP Upper House elections – both at state and senate level – and I can assure you that Fatima Payman is a traitor.
“She knew what she was getting into and she should be expelled from the party.”
However, in a sign of the divisions within the party, the NSW Young Labor Left branch supported Senator Payman’s decision to join the crossbench.
Next Tuesday she will speak at a branch event called “Palestine and the Labor Movement.”
Senator Payman will appear via Zoom. Other speakers include NSW state Labor MP Anthony D’Adam and Erima Dall, a delegate from the Maritime Union of Australia.
“To take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, a larger and more powerful movement for Palestine is needed,” the event description reads.
‘Trade unions have supported many social movements in the past, but most have yet to fully support Palestine.
‘In the lead up to the protest at the NSW Labor conference, this forum will discuss the links between unions and the Labor Party and how we can build more support among Labor members and the labor movement.’