Bandt ducks questions on Cox, cuts short press conference

Greens leader Adam Bandt has cut short a press conference in Perth after ducking a series of questions about bullying allegations levelled at the party’s WA senator Dorinda Cox.

This masthead revealed on Thursday that 20 staff had quit Cox’s office in just three years, with several lodging formal complaints with the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service and Bandt’s office that alleged a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe.

A leaked copy of a formal complaint to the workplace support service detailed several alleged incidents of staff crying and becoming distressed after confrontations with Cox, while two of Cox’s former staff went public with their claims and another nine provided details anonymously.

Cox did not attend the press conference with Bandt and fellow WA senator Jordon Steele-John. When she was approached for comment at the WA Greens office in Perth, a visibly upset Cox, who was being comforted by an adviser, declined to speak.

Bandt was repeatedly asked what steps he and his office had taken to investigate the allegations against Cox raised with his office but declined to answer because of the “personal and confidential nature of a number of these complaints”.

He would also not say if the WA senator would keep her First Nations portfolio, whether a bullying investigation would be launched by the Greens or if there would be any other consequences for the senator.

“What we’ve seen in the past is that when staff, who are entitled to a safe workplace, have brought full complaints, there had been a feeling that they hadn’t been properly dealt with because it was treated as a political matter,” he said.

“So the Greens, together with others, pushed very strongly for some independent oversight and a watchdog to look across the whole of parliament and that’s the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service [which was set up after the Jenkins review into parliament’s culture], so that when staff members have issues, they could have 100 per cent confidence that they were going to be dealt with, not as some political matter, but were going to be dealt with by an independent agency.

“Anytime any staff member comes to me or comes to my team with an issue, we take it very seriously, and we support them to take that complaint through the independent PWSS process.

“Every staff member, whatever party that they work for, whatever workplace that they work in, is, of course, entitled to a safe workplace.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt after his press conference was wrapped up. Credit: Ten news

Bandt said that if the support service made any recommendations about Cox’s office, “we will take those on board”.

However, when it was pointed out that the support services’ function was not to make recommendations to the leader’s office, Bandt said: “This is the system that has been set up”.

An adviser to the Greens leader then stepped in and ended the press conference.

Bandt has previously been vocal about the issue of workplace bullying in parliament and called on other political leaders to take responsibility.

His office, Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi, senate leader Larissa Waters and the party’s national conveners did not respond to further requests for comment on Thursday about their handling of the allegations against Cox.

Another Cox staffer, who had not spoken previously and asked to remain anonymous, lashed Bandt’s handling of the issue.

“It’s extremely disappointing to learn from Mr Bandt today that effectively no disciplinary action has been taken, despite 20 staff leaving her office due to the serious harms that they faced at work,” they said.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Cox said the number of staff that had left the senator’s office was not unusually high and said part of the reason for the turnover was her shift into the First Nations portfolio during the Voice to parliament campaign.

He said Cox worked respectfully and collaboratively with her colleagues and her staff and that she “continues to be very grateful to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service for the work they do in helping offices across the country, including mine, despite what can be challenging circumstances both politically and personally”.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.