The 2025 Australian federal election so far
The shadow Minister for infrastructure, Bridget McKenzie, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, at the Marnong Winery on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Greens Leader Adam Bandt with a giant toothbrush advocating for the inclusion of dental care in Medicare at Luna Park in Melbourne. Photograph: Nadir Kinani/AAP
Prime minister Anthony Albanese takes in the sights on a ferry to Green Island, Queensland, in the electorate of Leichhardt. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
A journalist gets to work with a live cross straight after touchdown in Perth. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Peter Dutton at a press conference in Prestons, in western Sydney, in the seat of Werriwa. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Anthony Albanese falls off the riser as he attends an MEU conference in the electorate of Hunter in the Hunter Valley. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Independent Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel gives her campaign launch speech at Kingston City Hall in Melbourne. Photograph:Peter Dutton at Ampol Carrick petrol station in Tasmania. Photograph: Thomas Lisson/AAP
A protestor approaches the minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen as he arrives for a press conference at a home in Burwood, Melbourne. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Peter Dutton visits a Headspace facility in Melton north-east of Melbourne, in the seat of Hawke. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
A protester confronts Peter Dutton at a beer factory in the seat of Brisbane. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
A buff-banded rail bird photobombs Anthony Albanese as he speaks to the media on Green Island. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Peter Dutton tightens a wheel nut during a visit to the Cougar Mining Equipment facility in Tomago in the Hunter Valley in the seat of Paterson. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
A Keep the Sheep protester shouts outside Midland hospital in Perth. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
The shadow of Peter Dutton is seen at a press conference in Prestons, in western Sydney in the seat of Werriwa. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Anthony Albanese and the Member for Lalor Jo Ryan during a visit to the The Werribee Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Melbourne. Photograph: Jason Edwards/AAP
A pet cockatoo named 'Malcolm Turnbill II' at a home visited by Anthony Albanese in the electorate of Canberra, ACT. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Anthony Albanese with the minister for regional development Kristy McBain in Bega, NSW.
Photograph: Jason Edwards/AAP
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
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.
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Explosive leaked resignation letter from Greens politician exposes what they really think of the party: 'Toxic'
Dorinda Cox, who sensationally defected from the Greens to Labor last week, has accused her former party of racism and bullying in an explosive, leaked resignation letter. The WA Senator took aim at her her former colleagues, claiming they had failed her as the party's 'last First Nations MP, and (they) continue to fail First Nations people'. 'In my experience, the Greens tolerate a culture that permits violence against First Nations women within its structures,' she wrote. 'In this respect, the party is deeply racist.' The resignation letter, first reported by the ABC, was leaked after Senator Cox defected to the Labor party. Senator Cox had only recently missed out on a leadership role in the Greens following Adam Bandt's humiliating election defeat. The Yamatji-Noongar woman was elected to the upper house in 2021 to fill a Greens vacancy and had been the party's Indigenous affairs spokesperson. Senator Cox was also at the centre of controversy in her party over allegations surrounding her treatment of her staff, with some accusing Cox of being a bully. Senator Lidia Thorpe, who left the Greens to sit as an independent, also revealed last week that she had made a bullying complaint against Senator Cox in 2022. But, in her fiery resignation letter, Senator Cox insisted she had never been a bully and claimed that when she left there were no outstanding 'grievances' against her. 'I have faced an unremitting campaign of bullying and dishonest claims over the last 18 months,' Senator Cox wrote. 'I am not, and have never been, a bully. I do not perpetrate it.' Senator Cox claimed her allegations that she was assaulted by a party member at Perth Airport in 2023 following a disagreement about the Voice to Parliament fell on deaf ears. But Daily Mail Australia understands that details of the complaint went all the way to former leader Adam Bandt's office. She also accused the party of presiding over a 'toxic culture' that saw rumours circulated about her. 'Recently, my children were approached by a former staff member who had publicly made serious allegations about me at a Greens event,' she wrote. 'This type of mobbing made its way into "moderated" online meeting chats and the widely circulated meeting minutes of the (Australian Greens First Nations Network). 'The Greens failed in their duty of care for my staff and me, and disregarded the reported and obvious impact of what was occurring. The focus was solely on winning seats.' Daily Mail Australia approached Greens' leader Larissa Waters for comment. A Greens spokesperson disputed the allegations in Senator Cox's resignation letter, claiming they were 'an anti-racism party, and pushing a senator to take complaints seriously is not bullying'. 'These claims are disappointing, unrepresentative of the support Senator Cox received and ignore 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,' the spokesperson added. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of hypocrisy after welcoming Senator Cox into the Labor fold. After Fatima Payman deserted Labor over its stance on Gaza, Albanese called for the WA Senator to quit and hand back her seat.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
At a time of global political upheaval, can Albanese really resist calls to be more ambitious?
In his National Press Club address on Tuesday the prime minister laid down an existential challenge to those who cheered the loudest on election night when Peter Dutton and his miserable crew were confined to the dustbin of history. In making the case that trust in government is underpinned by economic stability and keeping election promises, the PM is saying the quiet bit out loud: his government will push back on calls to 'show more ambition' in the wake of its thumping win. Setting markers on what he perceives to be the limit to his mandate is, on one level, a legitimate interpretation of the election and a credible template for embedding Labor government for the next decade. In my post-election column, I argued even this limited mandate is ambitious and wide-ranging: building renewables, new homes and health infrastructure; consolidating the care economy; mediating AI and regulating big tech. But at a time of rolling and intensifying crises in geopolitics, technology, climate and inequality, is it enough to say this is the limit of the government's work? More profoundly, how can a government determined to occupy the centre ground be shepherded to more ambition? The new government's approval of the long-term expansion of gas on the North-West Shelf, its neglect of the Uluru statement from the heart and the repercussions of our defence relationship with an unhinged US are causing legitimate angst. It would be understandable and natural to respond to these positions with anger and dissent but in this new environment the traditional political pressure points are not so readily available. Those who dreamed of progressive minority government have been sent to the sidelines. The Greens may have a Senate veto power but this will need to be exercised judiciously lest it become a proxy for frustrating the aforementioned mandate. Add the fact that the Labor left now holds not just the leadership but a majority of cabinet positions, and the institutional mechanisms for prosecuting more progressive policy appear limited. This operating environment lays down real challenges for progressive groups that normally lead the charge, the not-for-profits, member organisations and unions whose leaders are convening in Old Parliament House this week to survey the political landscape. Business-as-usual campaigning driven by anger, passion and the demands of funders for quick wins risks marginalising progressives to the fringes of the national debate. To adapt to these new conditions, progressive groups need to confront the situation as dispassionately as the prime minister. First, they need tocome to terms with what the election was really about: a vote for stability against the chaos of Dutton, not a contest between visions of radical change but a contrast of tone and approach. Second, they should look for opportunities to campaign alongside government where there is common ground and common purpose. The rollout of renewable energy in regional Australia is a case in point: that agenda ran the real risk of being sidelined by a lack of community social licence, which was wrongly taken as a given as advocates moved on to the next fight before fully banking the one in from of them. Third, they need to identify the issues that are beyond the current mandate and build long-term strategies to extend the government's ambitions. To be clear, this does not mean putting the planet, poverty or peace on the backburner. But at the beginning of a cycle where the government has such a strong majority, this ambition needs to be earned not simply demanded. The final lesson is that the vast majority of voters are motivated by their own material needs, not a broader ideological or moral imperative. Building ambition around this reality is critical in securing common cause. It is important that the Albanese government learns the right lessons from its victory, starting with recognising that despite the arithmetic thumping, Labor's primary vote was lower than Mark Latham's 2004 disaster. It is now easy to forget how fraught the situation was before the final run home, when there was still a real chance that the government would make history as the first one-term government in a century. For too much of its first term it drifted from crisis to crisis, too reactive to the white noise of the Murdoch press and too ready to pick a fight with the Greens as a proof point of its centrist bona fides. It also left it late to build a coherent story about why it was there and what it was trying to achieve. Apart from defending things like Medicare and opposing things like nuclear power, there is still a confusion about what the government is actually there to do. Finally, while the government has the power to pass laws and allocate spending, it cannot do everything. Through the first term its tendency to hoard power left it exposed and isolated. Working more collaboratively with civil society through sharing its mission and embracing friction will only make it more resilient. Ultimately the prime minister is right: his government, like all governments, exists as an expression of the trust of the people. Rewarding that trust by building a shared consensus to tackle our cascading crises is the only credible pathway to securing the lasting change that the moment demands. Peter Lewis is the executive director of Essential, a progressive strategic communications and research company that undertook research for Labor in the last election and conducts qualitative research for Guardian Australia. He is also the host of Per Capita's Burning Platforms podcast
