The Greens believe a number of Labor MPs could vote to support a future Palestinian state, including West Australians Josh Wilson and Anne Aly, Victorians Maria Vamvakinou, Peter Khalil and Ged Kearney, NSW MPs Ed Husic and Tony Burke and Queenslander Graham Perrett.
Wilson, Vamvakinou, Kearney and Khalil were contacted for comment.
Perrett would not say whether he would support a motion in the House of Representatives, accusing the Greens of stunts and vote harvesting.
“I’m imagining it didn’t really derail [Israel] from what they’re doing,” Perrett said of the Senate motion.
He said the ALP platform recognised Palestine.
“We have party processes. We’re a stronger party with Senator Payman, who I regard as a friend,” he said.
One senior figure in the Labor Right, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, said the decision to allow Payman to cross the floor without sanction was causing considerable internal angst because of the precedent it set.
Speaking after she crossed the floor, Payman said her decision to cross the floor was the “most difficult decision I have had to make”.
“Although each step I took across the Senate floor felt like a mile, I know I did not walk these steps by myself, and I know I did not walk them alone,” she said, before adding she was “bitterly disappointed that my colleagues do not feel the same way”.
Tuesday’s vote comes in the ninth month of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza strip. On October 7 last year, Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel and killed 1200 people, as well as taking more than 250 people hostage, according to the Israel Defence Force. Gazan health authorities report more than 37,000 people have died during the subsequent invasion.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said Payman would not be expelled from the party.
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“The point to make here is, you know, since the events of October 7 and the tragedy that we have seen play out in the Middle East, what we’ve also seen is social cohesion in this country come under enormous pressure. And all of us need to be doing everything we can to try and bring people together,” Marles told Nine.
“Now is not the time to be going around expelling people for having particular views on this issue. And we’re not going to be doing that.”
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