‘Right way:’ Wong’s warning to rogue senator

The Albanese government’s senate leader has cautioned government members to follow caucus rules after Fatima Payman became the first Labor member to cross the floor in 18 years.

The first term Western Australian senator broke ranks and sided with the Greens on a motion to recognise the state of Palestine.

In doing so, she broke Labor’s requirement for caucus members to vote in line with the party’s stand on policy.

While Senator Payman has avoided potential expulsion, the government’s leader in the Senate Penny Wong said she understood why “caucus members are feeling upset”.

‘Right way:’ Wong’s warning to rogue senator

Senator Wong, who was Australia’s first openly gay cabinet minister, notably toed the party line against same-sex marriage before it was finally legislated in 2017.

She voted against Bills attempting to legalise it in 2008 and 2010, and sided with the ALP’s stance that marriage was an institution between a man and a woman.

Reflecting on the time, Senator Wong said it was important the Labor caucus stood together as a “collective”.

“There’s a lot of personal commitments that we bring as members of the Labor Party and as members and senators elected on the Labor ticket, a personal commitment to the collective,” she said, speaking to the ABC.

“We stand together, and that is why it’s not just a matter of rules. It’s a matter of what we believe, even when we disagree.”

Senator Wong said it was more appropriate for members to “have those arguments internally,” adding that was what happened “over many years” during the marriage equality debate.

“That’s what I did. And I think that’s the right way to go about it,” she said.

However she said she understood it had been a “difficult” time for the junior Senator.

Speaking to reporters after she crossed the floor, Senator Payman said the was the “most difficult decision” she’s had to make, and maintained she still had the “core values of the Labor Party”, and wanted to “continue serving in the Labor Party”.

Although she won’t be expelled, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suspended from federal Labor’s caucus meeting next Tuesday.

‘Great risk, cost’: Albo’s nuclear warning

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has used his speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) to rally against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear reactor plan.

He warned that not pursuing renewables would drive up energy prices and shatter industry confidence, which he said was the “true cost of nuclear power in Australia”.

“Not just the hundreds of billions of dollars in the cost of constructing the reactors more than a decade away,” he said.

“Not just the price households and businesses would pay for energy that is eight times more expensive than renewables.

“But the danger that another decade of denial prevents the action on climate and investment in energy we need now.”

The Prime Minister said nuclear power could not be “deployed as just another weapon in the culture wars,” and warned Australia had no “time to waste” in establishing itself as a leader in renewable energy.

“Australia has every resource imaginable to succeed in this decisive decade,” he said.

“Critical minerals, rare earths, skills and space and sunlight, the trade ties to our region.

“The only thing our nation does not have is time to waste.”

Mr Dutton later at the same event defended the Coalition’s energy policy, saying renewables are part of the mix.

“We’re huge supporters of renewable energy. It needs to be in the system,” he said.

“But we have to stop pretending it can work 24/7.”

More to come