Australian Senator Fatima payman has quit the governing labor party after being suspended for supporting a motion on recognizing Palestine last week payman defied her party to side with the greens on a motion urging the Senate to recognize Palestinian statud prime minister Anthony albanes suspended her on Sunday payman says she's going to retain her seat for Western Australia as an independent well Danielle Robertson's joining us now from Sydney U for those of us who hadn't been following this story closely give us some context how did we get here yeah well fmer payon's resignation did cause Fierce debate in the Australian Senate a new Push by Muslim groups across the country to remove labor from power and has reignited debate across the country about Australia's position on the war in Gaza this began about a week ago when Senator payman became the first labor member in about 18 years to cross the floor or defy the Party by voting in favor of a greens motion of Palestinian State now labor had agreed to reject that motion unless there were caveats labor is in favor of a Palestinian State as long as it is part of a peace deal and ultimately a two-state solution so the greens motion was too narrow for labor Senator payman crossing the floor in favor of the greens motion leading to prime minister Anthony albanesi suspending her indefinitely Senator pay then says she was intimidated by some members uh and she also then led to this point where today she announced her resignation and in Her speech she was quite emotional she was on the verge of tears where she said that this was one of the most difficult decisions of her life but ultimately said that her principles no longer align with labor and she also called out the government for what she called the greatest Injustice of our time yeah she's just to to go back to what we were mentioning before she does say that she's going to retain the seat for Western Australia as an independent but I understand there have been protests at Parliament tell us about those yeah so the issue of Palestinian statehood as well as Australia's stance on the war in Gaza has uh been divisive across the country and has sparked a number of debates and demonstrations and Longevity has really been a Hallmark of the pro Palestinian movement here in Australia the latest today at Parliament House where demonstrators climbed to the top of Parliament House in Cambra and they unfilled Pro Palestinian banners calling out Australia uh for enabling what they say uh war crimes they were on the parliament for about an hour's time before they were escorted away of course it caused a bit of a stir Parliament and the Prime Minister did condemn those actions but this is just one arm of a lengthy demonstrations and protests that have taken place across the country since the War Began uh in October Australia really has been a part there have been many prop Palestinian Marchers across the country in many cities and there have also been monthlong encampments at universities uh across Australia as well so Labour's position on the war in Gaza has really stood some anger among many communities across the country in particular now as well the Muslim communities who now say they may be the driving force in pushing labor out of power in a looming upcoming election that's Robertson bringing us up to date from Sydney Danielle thank you make sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest news from aler