A Labor branch in Anthony Albanese’s own electorate has passed a motion expressing support for the dissident senator Fatima Payman, even as expectations grow she is poised to quit the party.
Labor’s Leichhardt branch – which is within the prime minister’s Sydney electorate of Grayndler – passed the supportive motion at a scheduled meeting on Wednesday night.
“The Leichhardt branch expresses its solidarity with senator Fatima Payman,” said the motion approved by rank-and-file members in that branch.
“We share senator Payman’s strong support for Palestine and respect the courage and integrity she has demonstrated on this issue.”
Guardian Australia understands the motion was carried with majority support, with all speakers expressing sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people but some stressing the importance of caucus solidarity.
At least six Labor branches have now passed motions backing Payman in the past 48 hours, in a sign that some of the party’s rank-and-file members may be more forgiving of her breach of caucus solidarity rules than her fellow MPs and senators.
Federal Labor parliamentarians on Tuesday endorsed Albanese’s move to indefinitely suspend Payman from the caucus after the Western Australian senator, 29, warned she was prepared to cross the floor again on Palestinian statehood.
With rumours swirling that Payman could clarify her future as soon as Thursday, Albanese said peace in the Middle East “won’t be achieved by resolutions in the Senate and stunts by the Greens”.
On Wednesday night, the Labor government used its numbers in parliament’s lower house to pass its own motion supporting “recognition of the state of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”. This passed with 81 votes in favour and 55 against.
The government and most of the crossbench backed it, whereas the Greens and the Coalition voted against the motion, for separate reasons.
The Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather took umbrage at the term “as part of a peace process”, responding: “This motion is a joke.”
He asked: “What peace process? Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. It’s not a peace process.”
The Labor government minister Tanya Plibersek tweeted soon after the House vote on Wednesday: “The Greens have just teamed up with the Liberals to vote against a motion to recognise the State of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace.”
The independent MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, voted in favour of the government’s motion and acknowledged the pain of Palestinians and Israelis.
“The twin pain of these two groups of people coexists. One doesn’t cancel out the other,” Daniel told parliament.
In the Senate last week, Payman backed a Greens-led motion declaring an urgent need “for the Senate to recognise the state of Palestine”.
The government had unsuccessfully sought to amend the motion’s wording to add the reference to a peace process but the Coalition and the Greens voted that amendment down.
When the unamended motion was put to a vote, Payman crossed the floor to support it – a form of dissent that has historically been treated harshly by Labor, which has longstanding rules to uphold collective decisions.
Albanese said on Tuesday: “The problem with the motion that was moved by the Greens is it forgot to mention Israel, and a one-state solution, whether it is Israel or Palestine, is not in the interests of Israelis or Palestinians.”
Several left-aligned unions, including branches of the Australian Services Union, have urged the government to listen to grassroots party members who want it to move quickly to recognise Palestine.
Anthony D’Adam, a NSW upper house MP and spokesperson for the Labor Friends of Palestine group, said the federal party “needs to listen to Fatima Payman, not punish her”.
“Fatima is a voice for Labor’s rank and file, for members of affiliated unions and for Labor voters, especially among young people and diverse communities,” D’Adam said.
“There is considerable anger among Labor members at the government’s move to weaken policy by making recognition of Palestine dependent on a nonexistent peace process.”
He argued Payman had “taken a brave and principled stand for Labor policy that was agreed collectively and democratically at the party’s highest level of decision making: the 2023 national conference”.
The Labor platform expresses support for “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders” and “calls on the Australian government to recognise Palestine as a state”.
According to a carefully negotiated form of words, the party said in the platform that it “expects that this issue will be an important priority for the Australian government” but it did not set a specific deadline to do so.
Pro-Palestinian party members say they interpreted the phrase “important priority” as code for during a first term of government.
In recent months, the government has shifted its policy incrementally, including by voting in favour of Palestinian membership of the UN.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has also indicated that Australia is open to recognising Palestine during a peace process, “not necessarily only at the end of the peace process”, although she is also pressing for reforms to the Palestinian Authority.
