When Fatima Payman crossed the Senate floor to vote against her government she knew it would come with consequences.
The Australian Labor party has strict penalties for those who undermine its collective positions, and acts of defiance can lead to expulsion - a precedent with a 130-year history.
The last time one of its politicians tested the waters while in power was before Ms Payman was born.
But last Tuesday, the 29-year-old did just that - joining the Green party and independent senators to support a motion on Palestinian statehood.
This is not unique to Auzzie politics. AFAIK every Westernized nation’s parties follow the same rule.
My question is if your nation touts its democracy as the best thing since sliced bread, how do you mesh that with dictatorial leadership forcing politicians to vote along party lines, especially on something like this?
Enforced conformity is about as undemocratic as it gets, yet I don’t see any big names standing up against it.
The senator is elected to the senate, party affiliation is not a requisite. If a senator is evicted from their party they just become an independent senator.
Note: I’m assuming this is how the Aus Senate works, as it’s probably similar to any other western democratic parliament.
Australia is a Commonwealth nation so they follow the Westminster style … the same as Britain, Canada, etc. Senators would not be elected, they are appointed, and act as a check on Parliament.
The Australian federal election senate ballot paper would like a word. Senators are popularly elected in Australia. You’re thinking of the UK, where the “upper house” AKA “House of Lords” are appointed. And until recently, some of the positions were hereditary. If you were the first son of “Lord Blatherskate”, you would become Lord upon his death, and proceed to occupy his seat in the House of Lords.
My mistake. I believed that because Oz is a Commonwealth nation their system of gov’t would be the same as Canada’s. But Australia has a mix of UK Westminster style and US Congress style. They do still have a Governor General who represents the monarchy tho.
Its called the Washminster system.
https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/what-is-the-washminster-system
When you vote for a party, the individual political stance of each politician within that party probably should not matter. In this case, the senator received a statistically insignificant amount of direct votes, it was the Labor party directly that people voted for.
Is it undemocratic as you claim if she wasn’t voted in for her personal stance?
They are not forced to vote along party lines. However, they don’t get to stay in the party unless they vote with it. They become Independent.
Some issues, usually moral issues, are “conscience” votes and there is no party line for those.
But what counts as a conscience vote is up to the parties once again. Palestinian genocide? Clearly not a moral issue