Latest news with #AnthonyDAdam
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Labor politician goes rogue and launches a fiery attack on the party's leadership
Labor leadership is 'authoritarian' and the party has slumped into 'stale groupthink', one of the party's MPs has claimed during an extraordinary late-night spray in parliament. Anthony D'Adam accused fellow NSW Labor MPs of 'bullying behaviour' in a caucus meeting where he criticised Premier Chris Minns for his handling of a pro-Palestine demonstration on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday. Before police adopted a formal position on the protest, Mr Minns called for it to be scrapped, saying it would bring chaos to Sydney's streets. Anthony D'Adam lambasted Chris Minns over his handling of a pro-Palestine demonstration. Despite his opposition, a number of state Labor MPs, including Mr D'Adam, were part of the crowd of more than 100,000 people that marched across the bridge. Mr D'Adam said he used a caucus meeting on Monday to make 'pointed criticisms' about the premier's position on Palestine and protests. 'I was howled down, abused and told I should resign from the Labor Party, and a motion was moved to gag me from speaking,' he said in parliament on Thursday night. 'In my entire time in parliament, I have never witnessed such an event. 'No apology has been received for the bullying behaviour I was forced to endure. It is deeply disturbing that the caucus appears incapable of entertaining dissenting views and took the step that it did.' Mr D'Adam, who has been in NSW parliament since 2019 and worked for decades in the union movement, said a growing intolerance of dissenting views within Labor had produced 'a stale groupthink'. 'But my experience has been that the party is increasingly centralised and authoritarian in its disposition,' he said. While Mr D'Adam has regularly used parliament to criticise government policies, particularly crackdowns on protests, none has been so damning of the premier and party culture. He is not the only NSW Labor MP to openly criticise the premier in recent weeks. Fellow MPs Stephen Lawrence and Sarah Kaine, who were also part of the weekend bridge march, have argued Mr Minns' largely anti-protest stance runs counter to Labor Party values. 'I am a member of the Labor Party, not the Liberal Party. Our party is founded on protest and collective action,' Mr Lawrence said. D'Adam pictured said he was bullied by his fellow MPs on Monday in a Labor meeting A well-known advocate for the Palestinian people, Mr D'Adam claimed he was stopped from speaking on the topic at last year's state Labor conference. Labor's national party platform Federal leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, have yet to recognise Palestinian statehood despite moves from similar counties like France, Canada and the United Kingdom to do so.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
‘Told not to speak': NSW Labor MP's bombshell claim over Palestine
A NSW Labor MP claims he was told he 'would not be allowed to speak' by a senior official during a debate about Palestine at a party conference late last year. Labor MLC Anthony D'Adam told the Legislative Council during a late-afternoon address on Thursday that the official said he could not be sure that Mr D'Adam's comments would not 'harm the Labor Party'. 'It is often argued that we should keep our debates inside party forums, but what option are we given if even in the forums where debates are supposed to occur, dissenting voices are not allowed to be heard,' he said. Mr D'Adam claimed he was 'howled down, abused' and urged to resign following a meeting of the Labor caucus earlier this week when, he said, he sought to 'make pointed criticisms of the Premier in respect to the issues of Palestine' and the Sydney Harbour Bridge protest. Members of the NSW Labor Party broke ranks over the weekend to join members of the Greens and crossbench who rallied with more than 100,000 pro-Palestine protesters across the bridge after the Supreme Court shot down a bid by police to stop the march. Premier Chris Minns had been vehemently opposed to the march, repeatedly stating that a pro-Palestine protest across the bridge should never be allowed to occur. In his speech, Mr D'Adams claims a motion was moved to 'gag' him from speaking and his critique of the Premier was 'political' and not personal. 'During the caucus debate, I could see the fear in the faces and hear it in the voices of my colleagues,' Mr D'Adams said. 'They were concerned that this type of conflict could cost them their seats or their ministries. 'It is this fear that is driving a risk-averse culture in our party, but the challenges that we face as a society require bold government.' Mr D'Adam said issues such as war and 'climate catastrophe' would not be solved by 'whispered conversations in quiet corners of government'. He admitted his 'dissenting views' on Palestine were well known and 'put him at odds with the current leadership of the party' at both state and federal level. 'I believe there is room in the Labor Party for those who hold opinions like mine,' Mr D'Adam said. 'I fear, however, there is a growing intolerance in the Labor Party for dissent that is stultifying the party's internal culture, and it is producing a stale groupthink. 'If we do not accommodate dissent, then it finds home elsewhere, and Labor becomes a narrow party devoid of debate, the kind of debate that is essential to the party.' State and federal Labor members attended Sunday's march, including NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib. Former federal minister Ed Husic was also in attendance.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
NSW Labor MP says party is gagging debate on Gaza during fiery speech in parliament
Labor MP Anthony D'Adam accuses his own party of trying to shut down debate on the Middle East. D'Adam, a former trade unionist, convener of Labor Friends of Palestine and a member of the upper house, told NSW parliament he was bullied when attempting to speak about the pro-Palestine Sydney Harbour Bridge protest in caucus
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Dissent against Chris Minns spills into parliament as Labor MP accuses party of gagging debate on Gaza
Simmering tensions within New South Wales Labor over the premier's handling of last weekend's protest over the killing in Gaza has erupted into the public domain with a member of the left faction delivering a fiery speech in parliament accusing his own party of trying to shut down debate on the Middle East. Anthony D'Adam, a former trade unionist, convener of Labor Friends of Palestine and a member of the upper house, used an adjournment debate on Thursday night to accuse Chris Minns and the caucus of 'stultifying the internal culture of the party'. D'Adam said MPs' fear of losing their seats was behind a 'risk-averse culture' in NSW Labor. Earlier this week, a number of backbenchers tried to raise their concerns in caucus about Minn's position on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and his decision to oppose the weekend protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was attended by up to 300,000 people in pouring rain. D'Adam said in his speech on Thursday that he was gagged and then bullied by caucus members. He now faces potential disciplinary action or possibly even expulsion from the Labor party for public airing matters discussed in caucus. In May last year, Minns sacked D'Adam from his role as parliamentary secretary for youth justice, after he criticised the actions of state police officers towards pro-Palestinian protesters. At the time, Minns called D'Adam's comments 'absolutely reprehensible'. Speaking out publicly about caucus meetings and criticising the leader is extremely rare in Labor. 'Earlier this week in the Labor caucus, I sought to make pointed criticisms of the premier in respect to the issues of Palestine and protest in the meeting,' D'Adam told parliament. 'I was … abused [and] told I should resign from the Labor party. A motion was moved to gag me from speaking. In my entire time in the parliament, I have never witnessed such an event. 'It is deeply disturbing that the caucus appears incapable of entertaining dissenting views and took the step that it did. No apology has been received for the bullying behaviour I was forced to endure.' D'Adam said the response 'can only confirm in the minds of caucus members that it is best to keep quiet'. He denied making a personal attack on Minns. 'My critique of the premier was a political critique,' he said. 'It was a critique of the government. It was not a personal attack on the premier as an individual but a criticism of his handling of a number of matters relating to the issues of the day.' Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion D'Adam said that during the caucus debate, which the Guardian reported on Monday, he could 'see the fear in the faces and hear it in the voices of my colleagues'. 'They were concerned that this type of conflict could cost them their seats or their ministries,' he said. 'It is this fear that is driving a risk-averse culture in our party. But the challenges that we face as a society require bold government. 'The solutions we require are full of political risk, the problems like war, climate catastrophe, dislocating, technological change and the growing gulf of inequality are not going to be solved by whispered conversations in quiet corners of government.' In his first two years as leader, Minns has run a tight ship with few internal problems within the party. But the conflict in Gaza and Minn's move to pass laws curtailing protests have brought criticism from human rights groups and within his own party. Comment was sought from the premier.
