If the Greens party room expels New South Wales Senator Lee Rhiannon over their internal disagreements about the Gonski 2.0 legislation, it would set in motion events unprecedented in the history of the Greens.

Reports suggest that the nine other federal Greens politicians are actively considering removing her from the party room with meetings to be held this week over Rhiannon authorising anti-Gonski 2.0 leaflets distributed in New South Wales while the party was in negotiations with the government over the education funding legislation.

It has been reported that the extraordinary — and, at this stage, only potential — move to kick Rhiannon out of the party room follows two other times Rhiannon has been censured over her public dissidence: once for issues resulting from her losing the education portfolio, and once for the rise of the Left Renewal in New South Wales (a section of the Greens that is critical of leader Richard Di Natale). Rhiannon denied this claim this morning on ABC radio, and previously said in a statement she has never been a member of Left Renewal and has nothing to do with its emergence.

The New South Wales branch — of which Rhiannon is the only federally elected representative — has been particularly agitated over the Gonski negotiations with the government, with the Left Renewal group posting on Facebook yesterday congratulations to Rhiannon for listening to the union movement, teachers, and the party membership about the legislation: 

“Left Renewal are astounded at the willingness of Sarah Hanson-Young and Richard Di Natale to negotiate with the Liberals on this bill, and to waver on Greens principles so far as to fail to rule out any cuts to public schools. This has cost the Greens the trust and support of unionists, teachers and public education activists across the country: trust built so strongly by years of fantastic work from the late John Kaye and from Lee Rhiannon before she had the Education portfolio stripped from her by Party Room.”

In the event Rhiannon’s colleagues vote her off the island, the Greens constitution allows the elected representatives to make this call if it is believed the parliamentarian’s “actions are causing or likely to cause severe damage to the party”. Rhiannon would still be a Greens politician in the federal Parliament, but would effectively sit as an independent. Rhiannon would have seven days to appeal the decision.

After this, the NSW branch of the Greens would then have to decide, within four weeks, whether it should commence expulsion proceedings against Rhiannon. All this will play out before a potentially bitter preselection battle in New South Wales against Rhiannon ahead of the next federal election, with former leader Bob Brown the most vocal in his opposition to Rhiannon remaining in the federal Parliament. Rhiannon has yet to say publicly whether she will run again at the next election.

Rhiannon said this morning that authorising leaflets on specific political issues was an important part of her work, and the first leaflets were released in the days after the Gonski legislation was first announced, and she wasn’t aware of negotiations with the government at that time. Rhiannon told the ABC this morning she felt bullied and harassed over the claims.

“Is it really a hanging offence when I am just doing what I do all the time? Supporting community, supporting local greens groups to be politically active,” she said.