Bullying complaints against Labor’s Dorinda Cox ‘not over’
Cox’s previous comments about Israel and Gaza could also present headaches for the Albanese government that she is now part of.
Indigenous and Jewish leaders have questioned Dorinda Cox’s decision to defect from the Greens to Labor, with one of the senator’s former staffers warning that bullying allegations against the senator are not settled.
Senator Cox made the shock announcement of her move to Labor on Monday, just weeks after she missed out on the deputy leadership of the Greens. She said her switch – which also came days after Environment Minister Murray Watt approved the North West Shelf gas extension she had opposed – showed that her “values and priorities are more aligned with Labor”.
The West Australian senator looked increasingly unlikely to secure a winnable spot on the Greens’ next Senate ticket amid tensions between her and party members. Senator Cox last year apologised after multiple staff came forward with allegations that they had been bullied during their time in her office, and many grassroots Greens members and the Blak Greens faction are angry about what they see as a lack of action from the top of the party in response to those complaints.
Anthony Albanese on Monday said the allegations had been “dealt with” through the appropriate channels.
One of the complainants against the senator, Esther Montgomery, told The Australian on Tuesday that she had “no doubt” that her decision to join Labor would ultimately end in tears for the Albanese government.
“Dorinda Cox is a creature of habit. She’s a bully by nature, and it’s going to be very, very interesting, the dynamics within the party,” she said.
Ms Montgomery, an Indigenous elder and veteran activist, spent a “nightmare” two months employed in Senator Cox’s office and went public with her complaints last year. She said no one from the government had made contact with her or other former staffers who had spoken out.
While the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service – the independent body set up to address workplace issues in the federal parliament – has investigated the complaints against the senator, Ms Montgomery said she and the other former staffers had not given up on having the bullying allegations further examined.
“We certainly are still holding her and her behaviour, in terms of occupational health and safety, to account,” she said. “She’s not getting away with the bullying, gaslighting and harassment and the personal trauma that she caused many of the staffers. She’s not getting away with it.”
Ms Montgomery said the senator had a poor relationship with many people in WA’s Indigenous communities, who felt she had not done enough to help them.
“People refuse to work with her, the Blak Greens refuse to work with her, Aboriginal members of the Australian Greens refuse to work with her. She doesn’t go into these remote communities. We have a lot of stuff going on in communities, homelessness, cost of living, obviously, the North West Shelf venture extension being announced, and Dorinda’s done absolutely nothing.”
Another prominent Indigenous figure, Save Our Songlines founder Raelene Cooper, said the senator’s s defection supported her long-held belief that Senator Cox was not “genuine” in her efforts to help grassroots campaigners in WA. “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” she said.
Ms Cooper has been aggressively campaigning against Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf, and Senator Cox had as recently as last week been adamant that the government should not approve the 40-year extension of the plant. Ms Cooper said she believed Senator Cox had realised that her best hope of political survival rested with Labor after the Greens “rejected” her.
“It is what it is, but … I feel really let down as an Aboriginal person in this country,” she said.
Beyond Senator Cox’s previous position on the North West Shelf, the senator’s previous comments on Israel and Gaza could also present headaches for the Albanese government.
Senator Cox has chanted “from the river to the sea” and “free, free Palestine” at a number of anti-Israel protests and has voted against Israel’s interests several times in the Senate.
Co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, told The Australian that he was concerned by Senator Cox’s participation in pro-Palestine rallies.
He noted that “from the river to the sea” had been described by Mr Albanese as inciting violence against Jewish people, while “free Palestine” was chanted by the man who allegedly murdered a young Jewish couple in Washington DC recently. “There is clearly a chasm between the Senator’s intentions and the movement to which she has lent her uncritical support,” he said.
“Now that she is a member of the government, we would expect her words and acts to be consistent with those of the government and not with the institutionally anti-Semitic party she left.”
He said he was willing to sit down with the senator “to explain the threat to life posed by the ‘free Palestine’ movement and to look at ways to help end the war without supporting those who incite and commit violence against Jewish people around the world”.
Lidia Thorpe – a former Greens colleague of Senator Cox, who quit to sit as an independent in early 2023 – said the senator should have become an independent rather than join Labor.
“While Senator Cox and I have had our differences, during her time with the Greens she spoke out strongly against this injustice. But we know that once you join Labor, you’re shut down. You’re not allowed to cross the floor. You’re not allowed to speak freely,” she said.
Senator Thorpe said that if changing Labor from within was possible, Fatima Payman would not have left the party over Labor’s position on Gaza.
“Senator Cox has been working hard on the Greens’ Truth and Justice Commission Bill, and when that comes to a vote, Labor’s rules will mean Senator Cox will not be allowed to vote in support of it,” she said.
“Labor already has several First Nations MPs. Labor already knows what needs to be done to deliver justice. Yet still the party continues to fail our people.”
Mr Albanese on Tuesday said Senator Cox understood that she must support Labor’s policies.
“Dorinda Cox understands that being a member of the Labor Party means that she will support positions that are made by the Labor Party,” he said.
Asked if he had counselled Senator Cox to rein in her commentary, Mr Albanese said she was an adult who had a distinguished career in the police and in parliament.
“She has come to the view that the Greens political party (is) not capable of achieving the change that she wants to see in public life. And that’s not surprising given that the Greens have lost their way,” he said.
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