Dorinda Cox and Greens colleagues stymie party’s bullying investigation

Embattled Greens senator Dorinda Cox has threatened legal action against her own party, halting moves to start a formal censure motion over allegations that the MP bullied staff in her office.

Cox’s threat comes after her federal colleagues allegedly pressured the party’s West Australian branch to drop an investigation into the allegations, while party officials warned starting a probe could cost the Greens votes at the Queensland election.

Dorinda Cox in the Senate earlier this month.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Senators Nick McKim and Penny Allman-Payne headed off the WA branch’s push against Cox, which could have led to her expulsion from the party, at a meeting where they argued hard against even using the word “investigation” in any motion.

Both senators warned an internal probe was legally risky, a claim the party’s national co-conveners, Gemmia Burden and Matthew Roberts, backed, citing legal advice obtained from a barrister at Owen Dixon Chambers West, and raised fears it could hurt the party in the Queensland state election.

But the Greens National Council allegedly defied leader Adam Bandt’s plan to shunt the allegations to parliament’s support service, which is powerless to discipline MPs, and instead forced the party to set up “a fair, safe and legally robust process to resolve complaints” to examine a dozen bullying complaints against the party’s First Nations spokeswoman.

Bandt has repeatedly referred to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service when asked about the allegations against Cox, and said if it made any recommendations about Cox’s office, “we will take those on board”.

It is not yet clear how, or if, the party will address the allegations and formal complaints made against Cox because the resolution leaves it up to the WA branch leaders and the national co-conveners to begin designing the process before the next National Council meeting in November.

According to one of three sources on the video call meeting who spoke to this masthead, Burden and Roberts revealed that “the federal leader’s [Bandt’s] office had sought legal advice on the WA proposal to expel her” and shared the advice with Cox.

After the interventions by the senators and party officials, the push for a motion calling for an independent investigation of Cox failed, and a watered-down motion was passed that did not include the word “investigate”.

Earlier this month, the WA Greens’ “quick decision-making group” issued Cox with a provisional censure after this masthead revealed 20 staff had quit within three years amid allegations of bullying and mistreatment by the senator.

Four of those people spoke on the record and another 11 spoke anonymously, prompting Cox to apologise for her conduct and the WA division to promise an investigation.

Since the allegations against Cox were first revealed by this masthead, 12 WA Greens have made written or verbal complaints about Cox to state director Dean Smith and state co-conveners Chloe Durand and Nat Tang.

The censure motion scheduled for debate last Saturday was cancelled after Cox engaged legal representation.

The National Council meeting the day before focused on the push by the WA Greens to investigate the allegations and potentially expel the senator from the party, rather than a possible censure motion.

Three members who attended the Friday meeting agreed to speak with this masthead only on background because they feared retribution.

At the meeting, senators Allman-Payne and McKim “kept arguing against using the word investigation in the motion”.

“When the senators in the meeting warned us of potential legal risks of using the word investigation at all, I became worried that they would try to delay or prevent a bullying investigation. The Australian Greens conveners seemed torn between the Queensland election optics and dealing with the complaints,” one member said.

According to the Greens member, McKim had said: “We should think very carefully about the legal risk of using the word investigation in any resolution adopted by the council. Penny [Allman-Payne] supported him, she said an investigation carried a lot of legal risk.”

Bandt and Cox did not attend the meeting.

Senator Dorinda Cox and Greens leader Adam Bandt at Parliament House last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A spokesperson for Bandt, McKim and Allman-Payne said: “We are supportive of a process to resolve these matters that is legal and affords procedural fairness to all participants.”

But according to a second source at the meeting, the national conveners appeared “more concerned about the Queensland election — they didn’t want anything to happen before the election. And the two MPs didn’t want to use the word investigate [in any resolution]”.

“People in WA are so united about having to expel Dorinda, even people who helped her win preselection want her expelled,” they said.

In a statement, Burden and Roberts said discussions of the National Council meeting were confidential.

“Response to any complaints needs to be lawful and consistent with the relevant constitution. A motion was proposed and passed by the National Council requesting the national secretaries work with WA to develop an appropriate process to deal with any issues that is fair and legally robust,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for Cox confirmed her lawyer had “provided a formal response to the WA Greens regarding the provisional censure motion, that had yet to be ratified and was to be heard at the meeting on [Saturday]. This was cancelled by GWA based on a lack of procedural fairness and legal risk”.

“Senator Cox has consistently shown her willingness to work with the WA and Australian Greens and to resolve any member statements relating to her. She has always asked for an independent, legally fair and just process to allow her to respond to such statements. The process followed last week did not meet that legal threshold and was abandoned by the Greens WA co-conveners,” the spokesperson said.

Cox has previously said there was “significant missing context” in reporting on her office.

“As the employer, I take responsibility for any shortcomings in what has occurred during this period and I apologise for the distress this may have caused,” Cox said earlier this month.

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