Albanese is riding high. Why did he take on a senator with so much baggage?

Sydney Morning Herald

2 days ago

Dorinda Cox's decision to leave the Greens is a bitter ending to one of the most difficult internal issues the minor party has ever wrestled with. Her joining Labor could be the beginning of a risky manoeuvre with seemingly little benefit for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the government.
While Cox's defeat in the Greens' recent deputy leadership ballot may have been the final straw for the senator, her decision to defect has been months in the making as she grew increasingly disenchanted with the views of some of her colleagues.
And then there was the fact that 20 staff had left Cox's office in about three years, revealed by this masthead last year, with several lodging formal complaints alleging a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe. Cox has consistently denied the claims and argued they lacked context, though she apologised for any distress felt by her staff.
An inquiry by WA firm Modern Legal into the allegations was still under way, much to her frustration. That inquiry is now over.
The WA senator's move to Labor is the first time a federal Greens MP has switched to another party, the second time in two years an Indigenous woman has quit the party, and comes after the party lost three lower house seats, including that of former leader Adam Bandt, at the recent election.
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By any measure, it has been a disastrous couple of months for the Greens.
But current and former Greens staff, though conceding the loss of a senator hurts, welcomed Cox's exit almost universally on Monday after having to defend her for months.
The majority view within the Greens is that the party no longer has to play a straight bat to the allegations and deal with them internally. That is the silver lining. Already, additional allegations about Cox's conduct while still within the Greens have begun to leak out.