Dorinda Cox staff quit Greens senator's office over toxic workplace ...

3 Oct 2024

The Sydney Morning Herald

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.

Dorinda Cox - Figure 1 — Photo The Sydney Morning Herald

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.

Senator Dorinda Cox in Parliament House last month.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

This masthead has also obtained a copy of a formal complaint made by a former staff member to parliament’s workplace support service, which was also sent to Bandt, his deputy chief of staff and two Greens party officials in mid-2021.

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.

Greens senator Dorinda Cox and Greens leader Adam Bandt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“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”.

The staffer provided the report to this masthead on the proviso their name was not connected.

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.”

A draft of a second complaint was provided to this masthead by a staffer who sent many emails to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) raising concerns about Cox. The staffer did not lodge the complaint and has since left the job.

Dorinda Cox - Figure 2 — Photo The Sydney Morning Herald

The draft complaint states that Cox “would admit to me that she found it difficult to maintain decorum and would apologise for her overreactions to situations, promising to do better next time.

“But the behaviour would continue, often times becoming aggressive, persistently negative and sometimes vicious which ultimately resulted in my mental health declining to the point of having daily panic attacks, thoughts of suicide and an almost complete loss of self-esteem in my professional ability.

“I felt at the time that if I didn’t resign from my position that my mental health would deteriorate to such a state to require medical intervention in a hospital setting, something I articulated to the chief of staff in Adam Bandt’s office.”

‘She asked me to come and work for her and I had high hopes, but she is a bully.’

Aunty Esther Montgomery

A “cultural diagnostic review” of Cox’s office conducted by corporate wellbeing service FBG Group in April 2022 and leaked to this masthead found that the senator’s office had undergone “significant change” since entering parliament, a reference to high staff turnover, and recommended “individual proactive psychological support/coaching for the senator” and “proactive wellbeing coaching for all office staff, particularly the leadership team”.

The review recommended trauma support be provided through the employee assistance program and to “embed greater opportunity for self-care into work days”.

At least four formal complaints have been made to the PWSS and at least five have been referred to Bandt’s office. A second cultural diagnostic review was conducted by the inhouse service at Cox’s request in December 2023 as staff continued to leave. The PWSS has refused to comment on the complaints.

The high turnover in Cox’s office has been an open secret in the Greens political party since soon after she entered parliament in September 2021 on a casual vacancy, following the retirement of veteran Greens senator Rachel Siewert.

Dorinda Cox - Figure 3 — Photo The Sydney Morning Herald

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.

“I was employed as the community organiser, she asked me to come and work for her and I had high hopes, but she is a bully,” Montgomery said.

Greens senator Dorinda Cox joined parliament in 2021 after taking over the position left vacant by Rachel Siewert. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“She continually undermines you, but she wouldn’t let me get out or meet people. She wouldn’t allow me to collaborate with people on grassroots work. I said that was impossible. She would put me down, psychologically ... She’s no shrinking violet.”

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.

“As long as the parliament and the political parties continue to hold weak lines of consequence for members of parliament, staff will continue to be put in dangerous work environments,” Quinton said.

“This would never happen in the corporate world or the not for profit world. If a CEO or anyone in management had behaved this way they would have been sacked. Why doesn’t our system of democracy have the same standards?”

A third former staff member, who is also Indigenous but who did not wish to be named said that “as an Aboriginal woman, she needs to be pulled up by our mob”.

A spokesman for Cox said the number of staff that had left the senator’s office was not unusually high and said part of the reason for the turnover was her shift into the First Nations portfolio during the Voice to parliament referendum campaign.

He said Cox worked respectfully and collaboratively with colleagues and her staff and that she “continues to be very grateful to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service for the work they do in helping offices across the country, including mine, despite what can be challenging circumstances both politically and personally”.

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 Bandt spokesperson said everyone deserved a safe working environment and that the PWSS played an essential role in maintaining a safe workplace “despite the challenging nature of political work”.

“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.