03-06-2025
Greens defector had confrontation with party after losing bid for leadership position
Senator Dorinda Cox had a heated discussion with her Greens colleagues after she won just three votes in her failed bid to become the party's deputy leader last month, creating a rift that ultimately contributed to her surprise defection to Labor on Monday.
In the leadership contest in Melbourne on May 15, Cox ran against NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi to become second in charge to Larissa Waters, who replaced Adam Bandt as leader after he lost his seat at the federal election.
Cox won just three of 12 votes.
Faruqi was endorsed before the vote by the Blak Greens, an Indigenous advocacy group within the party that also wanted Cox, an Indigenous woman, to be stripped of her responsibilities for Indigenous policy. Cox was seen as a more moderate voice in the party than Faruqi, who is on the left flank of the minor party.
After losing to Faruqi, Cox ran for the deputy whip position but lost to Queensland senator Penny Allman-Payne, who had already secured a role as the chair of the party room.
Her frustration led to heated scenes in the party's leadership vote meeting at the Melbourne Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices, according to three Greens sources who described the meeting on the condition of anonymity.
One source said Cox confronted Waters and told the new leader that she needed to 'grow a spine'. Another MP said the scenes were 'ugly' and unjustified, especially given Cox had not made clear to colleagues until late in the piece that she would run, meaning she had little chance of winning.
This masthead contacted Cox and Waters' office about the interaction.
