‘All dealt with': Albanese defends Greens defector after bullying allegations

The Age

2 days ago

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese insists bullying complaints against West Australian senator Dorinda Cox were dealt with appropriately as he hailed her shock defection from the Greens to join his government.
The move represents a body blow to the Greens, which lost three of its four lower house seats, including that of former leader Adam Bandt, at the election but had held its ground in the Senate.
Cox said she only informed new Greens leader Larissa Waters of her decision 90 minutes before Albanese held an afternoon press conference with Cox in Perth on Monday before a cabinet meeting in the state on Tuesday.
'I have reached a conclusion after deep and careful reflection that my values and priorities are more aligned with Labor than the Greens,' Cox said. 'I've worked hard to make Australia fairer and much more reconciled. But recently, I've lost some confidence in the capacity for the Greens to assist me in being able to progress this.'
The senator, who has three years left on her term in parliament, was facing the prospect of losing the number one spot on the Greens' Western Australian Senate ticket, after this masthead revealed Cox had lost 20 staff in three years.
Five lodged some form of complaint with the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, while several lodged complaints with the leader's office and with the WA branch of the Greens. In November, this masthead reported that parliament's support service wound up its involvement without informing complainants of a resolution.
Cox has consistently denied the claims and argued they lacked context but apologised for any distress felt by her staff during a period when her office was dealing with the pandemic, then the Voice referendum, multiple parliamentary inquiries and a large geographic area.
Cox said at the time that she took responsibility 'for any shortcomings in what has occurred during this period'.