‘All dealt with’: Albanese defends Greens defector after bullying allegations

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insists bullying complaints against West Australian senator Dorinda Cox were dealt with appropriately as he hailed her shock defection from the Greens to join his government.

The move represents a body blow to the Greens, which lost three of its four lower house seats, including that of former leader Adam Bandt, at the election but had held its ground in the Senate.

Cox said she only informed new Greens leader Larissa Waters of her decision 90 minutes before Albanese held an afternoon press conference with Cox in Perth on Monday before a cabinet meeting in the state on Tuesday.

“I have reached a conclusion after deep and careful reflection that my values and priorities are more aligned with Labor than the Greens,” Cox said. “I’ve worked hard to make Australia fairer and much more reconciled. But recently, I’ve lost some confidence in the capacity for the Greens to assist me in being able to progress this.”

The senator, who has three years left on her term in parliament, was facing the prospect of losing the number one spot on the Greens’ Western Australian Senate ticket, after this masthead revealed Cox had lost 20 staff in three years.

Five lodged some form of complaint with the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, while several lodged complaints with the leader’s office and with the WA branch of the Greens. In November, this masthead reported that parliament’s support service wound up its involvement without informing complainants of a resolution.

Dorinda Cox (centre) at a press conference for the Greens last year with Sarah Hanson-Young (left) and Peter Whish-Wilson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Cox has consistently denied the claims and argued they lacked context but apologised for any distress felt by her staff during a period when her office was dealing with the pandemic, then the Voice referendum, multiple parliamentary inquiries and a large geographic area.

Cox said at the time that she took responsibility “for any shortcomings in what has occurred during this period”.

Albanese said the problems had been addressed. “We examined everything that had been considered in the past. Those issues were dealt with appropriately. My government has established very clear guidelines,” Albanese said. “They were all dealt with in Senator Cox’s case and dealt with appropriately.”

Albanese appeared chuffed with the rare defection and said Cox approached Labor and had not asked for anything in return.

Cox and Larissa Waters, now the leader of the Greens, in 2023.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“[What] struck me as we were sitting down having a discussion about this, that the reason why Dorinda has made this decision is the same reason why all those years ago, as a very young man, I made a decision to join the Labor Party,” he said.

“You want to make a difference, that the way that you make a difference is by being a member of a party of government, that the values that Dorinda has are perfectly consistent with the values of the Labor Party.”

Cox’s defection does not significantly shift power in the Senate. It means the Greens have 10 senators and Labor 29, meaning the government still requires Greens support if the Coalition is opposed to a bill.

Waters said she was disappointed by Cox’s departure and argued she would have had more influence staying with the minor party and exercising the balance of power in the Senate.

“Senator Cox has said that her values align with the Labor Party,” Waters said in a statement. “This is the same Labor Party who this week approved the climate-wrecking North West Shelf gas project, which UNESCO advises will destroy significant First Nations heritage and ancient rock art.

“The Greens are committed to continuing to work for Truth, Treaty and Justice with First Nations people and will continue to work to protect Country and the climate that is under such threat from Labor Party decisions in Western Australia.”

Cox, an Indigenous woman and former police officer, was viewed as one of the more moderate voices in the Greens.

Cox was a Labor Party member before she joined the Greens and is close friends with Marcus Stewart, the inaugural co-chair of Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly and husband of Victorian Labor senator Jana Stewart.

One Labor MP, who asked not to be named, said the Greens had not guaranteed that Cox would gain a winnable Senate spot next election.

Cox is the second Indigenous senator to quit the Greens in recent years after Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe moved to the crossbench because she did not support a Voice to parliament.

Albanese played a key role in bringing Cox across to Labor, much as he helped convince former Coalition MP Peter Slipper to become an independent speaker in 2012.

After being approached by Cox, Labor proceeded cautiously, with the prime minister consulting the party’s Indigenous MPs, including Malarndirri McCarthy, Marion Scrymgour, Gordon Reid and Jana Stewart.

The leadership group, including Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher, Don Farrell and Richard Marles, also discussed the potential defection. It was signed off by the party’s national executive at a meeting on Sunday.

Even as the number of people who knew about the stunning defection grew in recent days, the news did not leak before Albanese’s announcement on Monday.

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