Penny Wong says she understands why some Labor caucus members “feel upset” about Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor on Palestinian statehood, effectively confirming the party is facing a level of internal discontent about the lack of a severe punishment.
Wong, the Labor leader in the Senate and foreign affairs minister, also highlighted her own record of pressing internally for the party to support marriage equality prior to the ALP platform being changed in 2011.
But Labor caucus sources have told Guardian Australia the internal backlash will likely be limited because of the particular circumstances of this case.
Payman crossed the floor on Tuesday to vote for the Greens’ urgency motion in the Senate to recognise Palestinian statehood, saying she had walked with “the rank-and-file Labor party members who told me we must do more”.
The first-term senator for Western Australia described it as the “most difficult decision” she has had to make, but one she believed was in line with “the party ethos”.
Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday that Payman would “not be attending the Labor caucus for the rest of this session”, meaning she would be required to miss next Tuesday’s party meeting.
But Payman has not been expelled from the party, with the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, arguing that it was “not a time to be going around expelling people because they have a particular view on this issue”.
Guardian Australia understands there is a level of acceptance within the caucus that it would be a bad look for the party to inflict a severe punishment on a young Muslim senator who is authentically reflecting the concerns of her community.
The government is already facing a backlash from Palestinian, Arab and Islamic Australians who feel it is not doing enough to halt Israel’s offensive on Gaza.
However, there is also sensitivity among Labor parliamentarians who have previously been forced to toe the party line on other matters of conscience, such as marriage equality.
One source told Guardian Australia that Albanese’s response was “the best approach of the available options”. Another source said there had to be some sort of consequence, but the prime minister “got it right in substance and tone”.
The WA Labor senator Louise Pratt told The Australian newspaper it was best for caucus members to work “within the tent” to influence the party’s policy.
“In the context of marriage equality, while it was hard to be bound at the time, we knew that we needed to change the whole of the government position and it was the long game to be able to use the party’s numbers to get to that outcome,” Pratt told the newspaper.
“Whereas a Senate vote is not going to, for example, create peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine.”
Pratt has been contacted for further comment.
In a round of media interviews on Thursday, Wong said Albanese had “dealt with this matter with great restraint” and acknowledged “the difficulty that the senator has felt” on this issue.
But Wong added that she understood “why caucus members are feeling upset” about the fracturing of party unity.
“Even when we disagree, we have those arguments internally, as you saw over many years in the marriage equality debate,” Wong told ABC Radio’s AM program.
“That’s what I did, and I think that’s the right way to go about it.”
Wong used similar language on Nine’s Today show: “I can understand why caucus members feel upset because, you know, we are a party of the collective and our expectation is Senator Payman will abide by caucus decisions.”
Wong later told reporters the Greens’ motion was “all about politics, not about change”.
She said the government would have supported the Greens’ motion if the Senate had agreed to the Labor amendment specifying that recognition of Palestine occur “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
The Labor Friends of Palestine group praised Payman’s decision to cross the floor as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and said she had “the support of thousands of rank-and-file ALP members”.
The ALP platform contains a commitment to support “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders”.
The party platform calls on the Australian government to “recognise Palestine as a state” as an “important priority” but does not set out a firm timeframe for doing so.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the party had “tried to be pretty sympathetic and supportive of Senator Payman” in light of “the awful situation in the Middle East”.
“As a caucus, we have tried to be mature, sympathetic and supportive, but ultimately there are also consequences for decisions individuals make,” Gallagher told ABC Radio National.
“In this instance I think the response from the prime minister has been absolutely appropriate.”
