WA senator Dorinda Cox accuses Greens of being ‘deeply racist' and says ‘I am not a bully'
The former Greens senator Dorinda Cox has accused the Greens of being 'deeply racist' and insisted that she has never been a bully.
Cox, a Noongar Yamatji woman and Western Australian senator, announced last Monday she had defected to Labor, saying her views were more closely aligned with Labor than the Greens.
In a resignation letter sent to Greens leader Larissa Waters' office on Tuesday night, Cox claimed the party had 'cultural problems they refuse to acknowledge or address' and that she had experienced an 'unremitting campaign of bullying and dishonest claims'.
Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email
'I have seen and survived trauma, discrimination and harassment in previous work environments. I have seen the impact of psycho social violence on my family and my community. I am not, and have never been, a bully. I do not perpetrate it,' she said.
Cox has been the subject of a number of workplace behaviour complaints, as first reported by the Nine newspapers last October. At the time, the WA senator apologised for 'the distress this may have caused' but said there had been 'significant missing context' in the reports of bullying allegations within her office.
Cox said in her letter that at the time she resigned, there were no grievances pending against her in the party's conflict resolution process, and none had been put to her during the period she was a senator.
'The Greens failed me as its last First Nations MP, and continue to fail First Nations people,' Cox wrote.
'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.
'Instead of dealing with its toxic culture, the Greens sought to shut me down. The Greens failed in their duty of care for my staff and me, and disregarded the reported and obvious impact of what was occurring.'
Cox accused the federal and Western Australian Greens' leadership for embracing 'untrue' claims and amplifying them.
The WA Greens announced an external inquiry into grievances it received against Cox in mid-January by former staff members within the party after the allegations were publicly reported. The inquiry has now ceased.
The WA Greens said 'the co-convenors of Greens (WA) went to great lengths to ensure the process was culturally safe and delivered due process to all parties'.
An Australian Greens spokesperson said the claims were 'disappointing' and ignored the 'substantive work undertaken by the party to find a resolution to the complaints made both by and against Senator Cox, and to address the breakdown in her relationship with Greens' First Nations members'.
'As the IPSC [Independent Parliamentary Standards Committee] and PWSS [Parliamentary Workplace Support Service] are the bodies created by Parliament to address complaints from staff, they can continue to investigate ongoing matters. This is unchanged by the senator's decision to move to a party that continues to destroy First Nations cultural history through approving coal and gas projects.'
Sign up to Breaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
after newsletter promotion
Anthony Albanese was asked about historical bullying complaints against Cox last Monday.
The prime minister said Labor had 'examined everything that had been considered in the past' and felt that the 'issues were dealt with appropriately'.
In October 2024, Cox said she took responsibility for 'any shortcomings' in her office and apologised for any distress that may have been caused but said there had been 'significant missing context' in the reports of bullying allegations within her office.
Cox said she had an 'immense amount of respect and gratitude to my team who prepare and support me for the work I undertake' and that she had 'always taken a proactive approach to staff wellbeing, including my own' and had undertaken executive coaching and mentoring from former MPs.
Cox's former colleague, Lidia Thorpe, revealed last week she was one of the people to complain to the parliamentary watchdog about Cox, disputing Albanese's claim that allegations about Cox had been 'dealt with'.
Thorpe, a former Greens senator who is now independent, said she raised a complaint against Cox in late 2022 to the Greens' leader's office and PWSS. Thorpe formally submitted the complaint to the PWSS in March 2023. Thorpe said on Wednesday her case remained unresolved because Cox declined to attend a mediation.
Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator, told ABC on Wednesday morning she had also experienced racism in the Greens.
'There's a lot of work that the Greens and many other organisations need to do to stamp [racism] out, particularly the parliament of this country,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Australia to boost aerial surveillance of Pacific for illegal fishing fleets
SYDNEY, June 12 (Reuters) - Australia plans to significantly boost surveillance of Pacific Islands territorial waters, spending A$477 million ($310.72 million) on aerial patrols for illegal fishing fleets, tender documents viewed by Reuters show, as China takes steps towards sending its coast guard to the region. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit Fiji on Friday, the Fiji Times newspaper reported, after the government of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka last week approved a maritime security agreement that will see Australia fund a patrol boat for Fiji. Australia will operate commercial aerial patrols to support Pacific Island countries monitoring exclusive economic zones which span millions of kilometres of ocean. Efforts to tackle illegal fishing also led to a new monitoring centre being opened in Fiji in April. Australia's defence department declined to comment on the aerial tender, and Pacific Minister Pat Conroy did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters reported last week that China's coast guard is taking further steps towards high seas boarding of fishing boats in the Pacific for the first time, risking tensions with Taiwanese fleets that also ply the region. The Chinese Coast Guard demonstrated the capabilities of one of its largest ships, used to enforce maritime law in the Taiwan Strait, to 10 Pacific Island ministers, including Fiji's, in China a fortnight ago. China has registered 26 coast guard vessels for Pacific Ocean patrols with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, although it is yet to conduct an inspection, WCPFC officials said. China declined to comment. Australia has gifted two dozen patrol boats to Pacific Island nations, and operates navy and air force patrols for illegal fishing in the region several times a year. Sangaa Clark, chief executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, representing nine Pacific Island countries controlling the world's largest tuna fishery, said the group has not invited China to conduct coast guard patrols, and instead relied on Australian-funded surveillance and patrols by Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States. Pacific security expert Peter Connolly, a fellow at the University of New South Wales, said Chinese Coast Guard patrols in the region would "introduce geostrategic tensions to the policing of the Pacific's fisheries". "This is particularly likely because the two most common nationalities of illegal fishermen in the Pacific have been from the PRC and from Taiwan," he said, referring to the People's Republic of China. ($1 = 1.5352 Australian dollars)
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
'No one cares what happened to you - you are not Brittany Higgins': Political staffer with a disturbingly familiar story exposes $2.4m taxpayer funded compo double standard
A parliamentary researcher who allegedly suffered a similar rape and bullying ordeal to Brittany Higgins says the government treated her completely differently. Anna Hough, 46, alleges she was raped as a young woman in politics and then bullied and discriminated against by her bosses after she raised it with them. Ms Hough claims she was sexually abused and raped by a political staffer while volunteering for the Australian Democrats between 2000 and 2001. When Ms Higgins went public in 2021 to famously disclose her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann, Ms Hough said it triggered her trauma from her own experience years earlier which led her to finally tell her bosses. But Ms Hough alleges that instead of being offered support by the Department of Parliamentary Services, she was sidelined and bullied by her managers. The mother-of-three from Canberra lodged a legal claim against the Federal Government in September 2023 covering both the alleged historic assaults and alleged bullying. But while Ms Higgins was given a $2.4million settlement after one day of mediation, Ms Hough claims she was instead treated like a 'second-class victim'. She told Daily Mail Australia she has been twice asked to sign non-disclosure agreements by the Labor Government and was given low-ball cash offers to settle. Now, after the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) found on Thursday there was 'no corruption issue' with Ms Higgins' huge settlement - which was signed after a day partly to avoid 'ongoing trauma' - Ms Hough has spoken out. 'I was a victim of alleged parliamentary workplace rape, sexual assault, bullying and discrimination but the Commonwealth has shown no concern about ongoing trauma to me,' Ms Hough told Daily Mail Australia. 'Instead, I have been offered a tiny fraction of the compensation, told repeatedly by lawyers and journalists that "no one cares what happened to you because you are not Brittany Higgins", and pressured to sign NDAs.' Ms Hough said some of the reasons she had been given by lawyers for the dramatic difference in settlement figures included that, 'you weren't a Liberal staffer', and 'that was a political decision'. '(But) we are supposed to have equality before the law in Australia,' she said. 'That should mean that if the Prime Minister, say, gets a speeding ticket he has to pay it the same way you or I do. 'And that if I am mistreated in the workplace, I get the same compensation as someone else who is similarly mistreated, whether they are the CEO or the cleaner.' Ms Hough stressed that her issue was with the government's handling of her own case, not how Ms Higgins' was treated. 'To be clear, I am not attacking Brittany Higgins, I am attacking the government and its inconsistency,' she said. The NACC said on Thursday that 'a critical consideration during the settlement process was avoiding ongoing trauma to Ms Higgins'. The former Liberal Party staffer's claim for alleged bullying and victimisation - not the rape itself - took about 11 months before it was resolved after a single day of mediation. 'But mine has now taken 20 months and counting,' Ms Hough said. 'The Commonwealth took four months just to respond to our first settlement offer. 'No one has shown any interest in avoiding ongoing trauma to me.' On Thursday morning, the NACC took the extraordinary step of revealing its preliminary findings into Ms Higgins' case to 'clear the air' around the 'scrutiny and speculation' surrounding the payout. It found that there was 'no corruption issue' involving any public officials. It also stated that the resolution of mediation after just a day was 'unexceptional' and revealed that Ms Higgins actually received less than the maximum amount recommended by external legal advice. Ms Higgins' former boss Senator Linda Reynolds, who lodged the original complaint, said she was 'bitterly disappointed' by the findings. 'My primary concern has always been how the Commonwealth could possibly settle unsubstantiated and statute barred claims made against me, alleging egregious conduct on my part without taking a single statement from me or speaking to me at all,' she said. Senator Reynolds has also launched legal action against the Commonwealth over the compensation payment, alleging that government lawyers were 'hopelessly conflicted'. The NACC said the question of whether Ms Higgins told mistruths during the pay-off talks was outside of their remit. 'Whether Ms Higgins made misrepresentations during the negotiations is not within the scope of the Commission's jurisdiction, as at the relevant time she was not a Commonwealth public official,' the NACC statement said. In his judgment in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case last year, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found that Ms Higgins made at least nine untrue representations when negotiating her settlement with the commission. Senator Reynolds noted that 'the NACC highlighted that whether or not a corruption issue exists is a different issue from whether there has been any breach of duty, misfeasance or negligence by the Commonwealth or its lawyers in relation to the settlement'. 'This distinction further reinforces the importance of my decision to pursue these issues in the Federal Court,' she added. Ms Reynolds is also awaiting the outcome of a blockbuster defamation claim she brought against Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over social media posts the pair made about her. A judgement is expected to be handed down in the Supreme Court of Western Australia later this month. Ms Hough first went public with her allegations in an interview with Sky News in April. Ms Hough said her motivation was the 'principle that all survivors deserve justice - regardless of their profile, role, or the media attention their case attracts'. 'I've been silenced for too long,' she added. 'Given the ALP's response to an alleged Parliament House rape cover up last election, the hypocrisy on display in their treatment of me, particularly in trying to silence me, is quite something.' Ms Hough has not had an affiliation with a political party since 2012 and has never been a member of the Liberal Party. She was a 21-year-old university student working as a volunteer for the Australian Democrats when she alleges she was raped and sexually assaulted by a political staffer between April 2000 and May 2001. 'The power imbalance, combined with a total lack of reporting mechanisms and a culture of silence, made it impossible for me to speak up,' she told Sky News. 'When I sought help outside the party after the first assault, I was made to feel that it was my fault. No one suggested I report the assault, seek counselling, or speak to the police.' It was later, during the MeToo era, when Ms. Higgins came forward with her own trauma, that Ms. Hough started suffering PTSD symptoms. At that stage, she had been working in the Department of Parliamentary Services since 2016. She disclosed her trauma to her bosses who allegedly failed to offer support. 'Instead of being supported, I was pressured to step down from a more senior acting role, denied a promotion, and treated as a burden,' she added. 'The bullying and discrimination I faced at DPS were re-traumatising.' She quit her role in April 2023 and filed her legal claim against the Commonwealth five months later. Ms Hough claims she was twice asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement during settlement negotiations. But a spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department has previously denied that they would ask any victims to stay silent with the use of non-disclosure agreements. Daily Mail Australia approached the Attorney-General's department for further comment. During her time working in parliament, Ms Hough contributed to the Set the Standard report, which examined workplace behaviour and culture in the corridors of power. She has also continued to call for the establishment of a redress scheme for survivors of abuse in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump accused of 'lobbing grenade' into US-UK security pact as president orders review of nuclear sub deal intended to tackle Chinese aggression
Donald Trump has been accused of 'throwing a hand grenade' into the transatlantic security alliance by ordering a review of a major nuclear submarine pact between the UK, the US and Australia. The president has ordered officials to look into Aukus, which was signed by his predecessor Joe Biden and is intended to secure the Pacific against Chinese aggression. It involves multi-billion-pound commitments to build new nuclear-powered submarines, with the Ministry of Defence already announcing its intention to build up to 12 submarines in last week's Strategic Defence Review. But these plans have been thrown into doubt after the US defence department announced a probe to ensure Aukus meets the President's 'America First' agenda. The review is being led by Elbridge Colby, who is close to President Trump and is a long-term sceptic of the agreement. A UK Government spokesman sought to play down the prospect of an American withdrawal from the deal today, saying Aukus was 'one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades'. They added: 'It is understandable that a new administration would want to review its approach to such a major partnership, just as the UK did last year.' But Helen Maguire, the Liberal Democrat defence spokeswoman, said: 'Trump's decision to review the AUKUS submarine pact has thrown another grenade into our security partnership. 'Even in the face of an imperial Putin and the rising threat posed by China, this White House simply can't be relied upon to support our collective defence. 'Our national security demands that we ramp up talks with our Commonwealth friends and work to plug the gap that the US is threatening to leave in European and global security. 'Starmer must meet urgently with Prime Minister Albanese to develop contingency plans for AUKUS if Trump withdraws from the treaty.' Announced in 2021, Aukus involves the three nations building a new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines and cooperating in other areas of advanced defence technology. The deal will also see Australia buy three Virginia-class submarines from the US ahead of the new vessels being built. That provision has led some in Washington, including Mr Colby, to question the deal on the grounds that the US may need those submarines if it finds itself in a war with China over Taiwan. But last month, the new US ambassador to London used his first major speech in the job to back Aukus. Warren Stephens told an audience in Parliament, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, that the US was 'proud to stand alongside Britain and Australia, two of our closest allies, as we deepen our collaboration to respond to a changing world'. Relations between the US and Australia have soured over tariffs. America has also demanded Australia increase defence spending and wants to sell older submarines to Australia on favourable terms. Last night former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West said: 'Aukus is extremely important for the strategic situation in the Pacific and very important for Britain as a way of us moving into our next generation of submarines. 'The US had had concerns about selling its submarines to Australia, so it is not entirely unexpected that President Trump would want to look at this. Hopefully this can be resolved and we all move on together as part of the alliance.' The deal is regarded as a pillar of security co-operation. But concerns have been raised in the US over the rate of submarine production and Australia's reluctance to commit to a 'no holds barred' response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. The US is committed to selling up to five boats to Australia, vessels which many in the US believe should be retained by the US Navy.
