Cox should resign from parliament, say Greens

Former colleagues of Dorinda Cox have urged the West Australian senator to resign from parliament following her defection from the Greens to Labor.

Anthony Albanese announcing former Greens senator Dorinda Cox has joined the Labor Party. Picture: Philip Gostelow / NewsWire

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Former colleagues of Dorinda Cox have urged the West Australian senator to resign from parliament, following her defection from the Greens to Labor earlier this week that caught the minor party by surprise.

Anthony Albanese was on Thursday forced to continue defending Senator Cox and her decision to join Labor, declaring she did so at a time when “the Greens political party have lost their way”.

“Dorinda Cox has decided that the way that she wants to go forward is as a member of the Labor team because she wants to make a difference,” he said.

“It is not surprising that the Greens political party will put forward some opposition to what has occurred, but Senator Cox has made a decision, and she has decided that the way that she will advance her values is through a party of government.”

Members of the Greens have accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy for welcoming Senator Cox into his caucus after declaring Fatima Payman should have left parliament when she defected from Labor last year.

“There is a bit of hypocrisy, of course, about how Labor has responded to this,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“It wasn’t OK to jump ship for Fatima Payman but apparently when it’s people coming to them, it’s all OK.”

Senator Hanson-Young said “the honourable” thing to do in Senator Cox’s situation was to resign from parliament.

“If somebody is elected as one party and then jump ships later on, I do think the honourable thing is to resign from the parliament,” she said.

“But that’s not the rules, so we’re left where we are.”

Responding to the Greens’ comments, Labor sources pointed to the response of Adam Bandt and Mehreen Faruqi after Senator Payman became an independent, with the pair applauding her courage.

Senator Cox is also facing protests over her defection back in WA, with environmental and Indigenous activists going to her electorate office on Thursday to condemn her decision.

The Disrupt Burrup Hub group, led by Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton, slammed Senator Cox for joining a party that had approved the North West Shelf extension.

“Senator Cox, do you still believe the government you just joined is ‘colluding with the gas industry’, like you claimed last year?” Mr Blurton said.