Dorinda Cox’s party switch highlights the defect in political defections

Political defections are not new. Indeed, they stretch back more than a century in this country. Billy Hughes was elected Labor leader in 1915. By retirement, he had represented six parties, the last being the Liberals. He never let party fidelity subsume personal conviction.

Hughes is the par exemplar of the party hopper. It is not illegal to do so. Indeed, there are no remedies, or penalties, that can be ascribed or applied to anyone who does it. There should be – particularly for senators.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Greens defector Dorinda Cox.Credit: AAP

A member of parliament is the representative of voters who put them there, and voters put them there because of what they represented to them. If a politician jumps ship midterm, voters are more than entitled to look askance at the move, even to feel outraged.

This week West Australian Greens senator Dorinda Cox defected to the Labor Party, of which she had once been a member. Cox entered parliament four years ago to fill a casual vacancy, and won in the 2022 election as a Green. Her term runs until 2028. After the May 3 Labor landslide, she competed unsuccessfully for the Greens’ deputy leadership, which was won by Mehreen Faruqi.

On Monday, Cox said: “During some deep reflection, what my values represent as a First Nations woman, as a proud West Australian, what it is that I would like to achieve in my political life and what you can’t do from the crossbench is make change.”

Voters could read the preceding in light of her recent criticism of her new party’s approval of the North West Shelf gas extension and its impact on Indigenous peoples’ cultural and heritage rights.

Of course, Cox is not alone in party-hopping. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, as the Country Liberal Party’s No.1 Senate selection, won in 2022 and sat with the Nationals, only to switch to sitting with the Liberal Party last month. She said at the time, “I have always been led by the Australian people and will continue to do so.” Fellow First Nations senator Lidia Thorpe quit the Greens in 2023, and now sits as an independent.

Before settling into her eponymous network, Jacqui Lambie had traversed the political landscape, from Labor and Liberal to the Palmer United Party. Fatima Payman left Labor last July, unhappy with the government’s position on the war in Gaza. At the end of the ’90s, Australian Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot defected to Labor. In 1996, Labor senator Mal Colston parted ways with the party after 21 years and sat as an independent after the party refused to back him for the position of Senate deputy president.

That all these MPs are or were senators is particularly galling. When many vote specifically for a party and its preferences by making their mark above the line on the Senate ballot, the decision of individuals to break from the promise of being part of that party is dishonourable at best. It is a reminder to voters that they should do their research on individuals – not only parties – and find an extra few minutes to vote below the line, where individuals can be ranked outside the order of the party ticket.

A party defector may cite what they think are compelling reasons, such as irreconcilable differences in a party’s policy direction, that can only be resolved through divorce. But should that allow them to simply discard one party’s colours for another and remain in parliament? The ripple effects of a defection can change a parliament’s power balance.

Perhaps Australia should take note of New Zealand, where parliament has been battling what it terms “waka jumping” for several decades. If a member leaves their party or is expelled, they can also be expelled from parliament. The seat then becomes vacant.

Democracy, at heart, is two things. First and foremost, it is the will of the people and, secondly, more brutally, an exercise in numbers. The larger number equals power. A consequence of party defections can be that the power of one can be supreme.

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