On the one hand, this is a very disappointing move by Senator Payman. It seems she’s going to align herself with environmental vandals in an effort to secure her re-election in 2028, rather than embrace what seemed like the more natural path given her history of the Teal pro-environment independents.

On the other hand, Labor brought this on themselves. And consequently, on the Australian people. If they hadn’t effectively forced her out of the party because of their refusal to condemn genocide (or more to the point, their refusal to acknowledge that the country being genocided even exists), she would have been in the Labor caucus still, and almost certainly would have stayed in line over this issue.