Labor’s ex-Greens senator defector Dorinda Cox slammed party’s ‘state capture’

Footage shows then-Greens senator Dorinda Cox describing the Albanese government as an example of ‘state capture in real time’.

Former Greens senator Dorinda Cox and Anthony Albanese at a press conference announcing she had joined the Labor Party. Picture: NewsWire / Philip Gostelow

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Anthony Albanese’s newest parliamentary recruit accused the Labor government of taking ­orders from Woodside Energy in a protest held outside the office of the Prime Minister’s key party lieutenants.

Footage obtained by The Australian shows then-Greens senator Dorinda Cox telling a group of protesters assembled outside the Inglewood electorate office of Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman that the state and federal Labor governments were an example of “state capture in real time” and accused Labor of doing Woodside’s bidding.

Senator Cox last week shocked colleagues when she defected to Labor, saying at the time that the government was better aligned with her values. The move came just days after Environment Minister Murray Watt gave con­ditional approval to Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project extension, to which Senator Cox had long been vociferously opposed.

It was her opposition to the North West Shelf that prompted her to join protesters outside the office of her now party colleague just before Christmas last year.

In a speech to the protesters, Senator Cox accused the Albanese government of taking direction from Woodside on a number of key issues. “Here in this country we now see the state capture that is happening in real time. The real time power that Woodside had to ensure the federal government followed their orders,“ she said.

Former Greens senator Dorinda Cox.

She accused the government she has now joined of scrapping its proposed nature-positive laws before the last election because of opposition from Woodside.

“Not only did they put off the electoral reform about donations, they put the bill aside around nat­ure positive, because this government are beholden to their donors,” she said. “So we then need to send a very clear message to (WA Premier) Roger Cook, to Anthony Albanese, and to Tanya Plibersek as the portfolio holder, that we as the constituents of this country are no longer to listen to the big money and the big corporations in this country.”

The unearthed comments add to a catalogue of conflicts between Senator Cox and her new party colleagues.

The West Australian senator’s criticism of Israel during her time in the Greens caused discomfort in the Jewish community, and she had also vowed in April to introduce her “We All Come Together on Country” bill to protect and preserve Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

She had described the bill as “fairly and squarely about the extension of the North West Shelf.”

After announcing her defection last week, Mr Albanese said Senator Cox was aware of her obligation to toe the line on backing the government’s policies. “Dorinda Cox understands that being a member of the Labor Party means she will support positions that are made by the Labor Party,” he said.

Senator Cox’s decision to quit the Greens came just weeks after she missed out on the party’s deputy leadership. Many inside the Greens believed she was set to lose her position on the party’s next Senate ticket.

Senator Cox had last year been the subject of multiple complaints from former staff about bullying and had apologised for the environment inside her office.

Mr Gorman – the target of Senator Cox’s December protest – had been highly critical of the Greens during her time in the party.

Just months before Senator Cox’s protest, he wrote an op-ed in The West Australian headlined “Wrecker Greens care only for their own political careers”.

“When it comes to the Greens, it is all about themselves. Their egos. Their careers. Their falsehoods,” he wrote at the time.

Senator Cox in her resignation letter to the Greens, leaked to the ABC on Wednesday, accused her former party of racism and failing First Nations people. “In my experience, the Greens tolerate a culture that permits violence against First Nations women within its structures. In this respect, the party is deeply racist,“ she wrote.

Her defection has opened up an alternative path through the Senate for the government, with Labor able to pass legislation with the support of the rest of the upper house crossbench.

It previously needed to rely on either the Greens or the Coalition.