Sally Sara: WA Senator Fatima Payman's decision to quit the Labor Party and join the crossbench has dominated the final sitting week of Parliament. Now attention turns to what she'll do next. The 29-year-old hasn't ruled out the possibility of starting her own political party, but for now she'll sit as an Independent. As Senator Payman weighs up her next move, the last federal Labor politician to vote against the party has warned that the Senator is about to find out who her real friends are. Oliver Gordon reports.
Oliver Gordon: WA Senator Fatima Payman will return from Parliament's mid-winter break as an Independent, but she's left the door open to one day starting her own political party.
Senator Fatima Payman: I have no idea. I haven't at this stage. I have not thought about it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
Oliver Gordon: Before spectacularly crossing the floor in support of a Greens motion calling for Palestinian statehood, Senator Payman met with preference whisperer Glenn Druery and an emerging political movement calling itself the Muslim Vote. The convener of that group has plans to announce two candidates in Labor-held seats in Western Sydney, but Senator Payman has distanced herself from the movement, saying her meeting with them was insignificant.
Senator Fatima Payman: Because I just wanted to, like every other group that I've met with, wanted to hear what they've got to say. I mean, the Muslim Vote, I don't, I have no affiliation with them, but I think what they're doing in terms of educating communities about that political literacy is very important.
Oliver Gordon: With speculation whirling about the Senator's next steps, legal adviser for the Australian Imams Council Bilal Rauf is afraid Payman's principled stance against the Albanese government's record on Israel could be forgotten.
Bilal Rauf: To speculate about, well, what happens next or some other block, frankly, does a disservice to those concerns and also risks turning away from what we do know about very serious concerns and human rights issues.
Oliver Gordon: And he points out it's not just Labor that should be concerned about Muslim communities deserting them at the next election.
Bilal Rauf: It would be, I think, incorrect to think that it's an issue only impacting on Labor and not politics and political parties more generally.
Oliver Gordon: Senator Payman's resignation from the Labor Party has sparked debate about whether it needs to change long-held protocols requiring members to vote along party lines. But in a statement, ALP National President Wayne Swan has stood by the party's solidarity tradition, adding Senator Payman's decision to go it alone would only empower Labor's opponents. It's not a view endorsed by Harry Quick, the last federal Labor MP to vote against party lines way back in 2005.
Harry Quick: If you want to attract young, intelligent, diverse people into the party, you should allow them and must allow them to voice their opinions and if necessary, cross the floor in support of them.
Oliver Gordon: The anti-war former MP has painful memories of the weeks following his decision to go it alone on an anti-terrorism bill his Labor colleagues supported.
Harry Quick: You're walking along the passageway and one of your colleagues is coming towards you and you automatically say hello Bill or hi Steve and they just ignore you and walk past you. When you go to the coffee shop in the house, people turn their backs and ignore you.
Oliver Gordon: His advice to the newly independent Senator Payman?
Harry Quick: I would suggest that she finds a nice warm spot in Australia and relaxes and turns her phone off for a couple of weeks.
Sally Sara: That's former federal MP Harry Quick ending Oliver Gordon's report.