Australian Politics

The thing I most dislike about our politics is this notion that every member of a political party has to be some hive mind. I believe it should absolutely be normal to hold a different personal position on any given topic to that of your party. I think it should be more normal to cross the floor on votes than it is.

I disagree that she can't serve on some committee of foreign affairs because she isn't completely 100% behind her party's stated position on one conflict. That's dumb.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A Labor senator who accused Israel of carrying out genocide on the Palestinian people has resigned from her position on two parliamentary foreign affairs committees.

Senator Payman urged her colleagues, including the prime minister, to "stand for what is right" and said that her conscience had been "uneasy for far too long" as she watched the war in Gaza from afar.

Her comments were described as "inappropriate" by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and were seized upon by the federal opposition as evidence of a split within Labor on foreign policy.

Government frontbencher Bill Shorten suggested earlier this month he would step down from the foreign affairs committee if he held the same view as his Labor colleague.

Liberal MP Julian Lesser asked the prime minister in parliament earlier this month whether he would "show strong, not weak, leadership and remove Senator Payman from the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade".

Israel has repeatedly denied claims of genocide, which is defined under international law as killing or harming members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part".

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