What is it about the Greens? For a mob who so loudly and incessantly preach their own moral greatness, every where you look, they’re riddled with toxicity. Whether it’s the German Greens being founded by a roster of ex-Nazis, or the non-stop shenanigans of their New Zealand freundinnen, Greens everywhere seem to attract the absolute worst of humanity.
Then there’s the Australian Greens. Hoo, boy.
Bullying, sexual assault, rape, stealing, drug abuse, drug smuggling, promoting bestiality and necrophilia, paedophiles, anti-Semitism… it just never ends with the Australian Greens.
Now, we can add yet another one to the list.
Twenty staff have left Greens WA senator Dorinda Cox’s office in just three years, with several lodging formal complaints alleging a hostile culture where employees felt unsafe.
Several former staffers who spoke to this masthead, including two who have gone public and eight on background, said complaints to party leader Adam Bandt’s office and the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service had failed to fix the problem.
Possibly because the offender is one of the Green’s sainted intersectional ‘victims’.
It details several incidents of staff crying and becoming distressed after confrontations with Cox, a Yamatji-Noongar woman who became Greens First Nations spokesperson when Lidia Thorpe quit the party last year. One of these former staffers moved into Bandt’s office, while the other six named in the document have since quit.
No doubt, she’ll just blame her (alleged) appalling behaviour on ‘the legacy of colonialism’, or something.
“During my time working in the office, I witnessed and experienced disturbing behaviour by Dorinda Cox towards myself and other staff members. These experiences made me concerned for my safety and for the safety of others in the office,” the complaint states, adding “I spent much of the time feeling like I was walking on eggshells just waiting for Dorinda to explode at me”.
Even Greens’ staffers can’t help but notice the yawning void between the Greens’ sermonising and their actual behaviour.
The complaint says: “It is also ironic that the Australian Greens are calling for integrity in government and the implementation of a Federal ICAC, and yet the most unsafe I have ever felt in my 20 years working life was while working in an Australian Greens Senatorial office.”
It’s not all anonymous complaints, either. Some were willing to put their names to the allegations.
Aunty Esther Montgomery, a Mardathoonera elder from the Pilbara region, worked for Cox for about six weeks from February 2024 until Easter before quitting.
She said the senator was “constantly putting me down” and confirmed she had made formal complaints to Bandt’s office and the support service […]
Sarah Quinton, a media adviser to former WA Greens senator Scott Ludlam from 2014 to 2017, became Cox’s chief of staff when the senator entered parliament in September 2021.
The experienced political operative lasted just four months before quitting and lodging complaints with the support service and Bandt’s office.
And the Dear Leader, Comrade Bandt? He knows nuzzink… nuzzink! And even if he did, he wouldn’t do anything.
Spokespeople for Bandt and Cox did not respond to questions about the PWSS complaints, the bullying allegations or the reasons for the cultural diagnostic […]
“The leader’s office has no legal power to resolve disputes between staff and any individual senator’s office, and if any member of staff raises a complaint, they are encouraged and offered support to pursue it through the independent PWSS, and that occurred here,” the spokesperson said.
Ah, yes, typical Greens: all care and no responsibility.
