Andrew Bolt: It’s a mystery why Anthony Albanese has welcomed defecting Greens senator Dorinda Cox into his government

It’s a mystery why the Prime Minister has welcomed Greens defector Dorinda Coxinto his government, not caring that she’s a rank opportunist facing allegations of bullying her staff.

It’s a mystery. Why has the Prime Minister welcomed a rat with a bad rep into his government?

Anthony Albanese has let Senator Dorinda Cox join Labor after defecting from the Greens, not caring that she’s a rank opportunist facing allegations of bullying her staff.

Nothing here makes sense, unless Albanese is an opportunist, too – but with faulty judgment, because this move is already backfiring.

One of Cox’s former staffers, Esther Montgomery, now says she and others were considering legal action against Cox and the case “will follow Dorinda into the Labor Party”.

Wow. Just what Labor needs – instantly having to defend its newest recruit from claims she was so hard to work for – even a bully – that she lost 30 staff in just three years.

Cox has said these claims lack “context” but she takes responsibility. She’s also someone who’s called One Nation leader Pauline Hanson a “F … retard”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a press conference announcing former Greens senator Dorinda Cox has joined the Labor Party. Picture: Philip Gostelow

So why didn’t Albanese figure she was one recruit not worth signing up, when her vote doesn’t change his chances of getting a vote through the Senate?

What a hypocrite he now looks, after savaging then Prime Minister Scott Morrison for supposedly making parliament unsafe for women.

Albanese insisted on Monday the claims against Cox were “dealt with appropriately” by an investigation.

But Montgomery on Wednesday said the investigation hadn’t finalised issues with the angry staff, and the Greens say the investigation hadn’t finished.

But nothing else about Albanese’s embrace of Cox makes sense, either.

For one, it’s bizarre that Labor, which has a tribal hatred of “rats” who desert the party, now welcoming a rat coming the other way.

Mr Albanese insists Ms Cox has a lot to offer. Picture: Philip Gostelow

Sorry to speak bluntly about Cox, but she was so Green three weeks ago that she ran to be the party’s deputy leader, and is quitting only after she lost three votes to nine.

But just three weeks she claims – oops! – her “values and priorities are more aligned with Labor”.

Really? Cox is actually closer to the Labor Party she’s described as “puppets for the fossil fuel industry” and “enablers of … climate destruction”? Closer to a party she’s accused of “lying” and having “dropped (Indigenous) people like a hot potato”?

Hmm. Which of those values are now yours, Senator?

But Albanese insists Cox has “a lot to offer” Labor. But maybe she just offers another hard-Left vote for Albanese in his struggle with Labor’s Right.

What else explains this?

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: It’s a mystery why Anthony Albanese has welcomed defecting Greens senator Dorinda Cox into his government