Former staff of Senator Dorinda Cox say complaints of bullying have not been fully dealt with. Photo: Wiki.
The Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) has come under fire over claims it hasn’t been much help to former staff members of Greens-turned-Labor Senator Dorinda Cox.
Anthony Albanese is also being strongly criticised for repeatedly saying the issues the West Australian Senator had with her former staff have all been dealt with appropriately.
Senator Cox defected to Labor on Monday (2 June), saying she now felt more aligned to the ALP than she does to the Greens, who got her into the Senate in 2021.
Senator Cox’s future preselection with the Greens was under a cloud, however, over accusations of bullying staff.
She has denied the claims, saying the reporting of them was made out of context, but she did apologise to staff for causing them distress last year.
Twenty people have left her staff since she became a senator and some made complaints to the PWSS.
The PWSS is an independent HR and support service driving cultural change in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
It was established in response to the Set the Standard: Report on the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces.
It is an independent statutory agency, and its CEO is not subject to direction by any person in relation to the functions of the PWSS.
When the Prime Minister was questioned about the claims made against his new recruit, he dismissed them as old news.
“Those issues were dealt with appropriately,” Mr Albanese said on Monday.
“My government has established very clear guidelines, meaning that any issues relating to workplaces and making sure that workplaces are safe are properly examined.
“They were all dealt with in Senator Cox’s case and dealt with appropriately.”
He was asked about them again on Tuesday and said that the “mechanism that my government established” had addressed the complaints.
But one of Senator Cox’s former staff told the ABC that workplace complaints remain unresolved.
Esther Montgomery, who worked for Senator Cox for only six weeks in 2024 before leaving and lodging a complaint, said she was “deeply surprised” and “offended” by the PM’s comments.
She also said that the complaints she and other former staff members of Senator Cox submitted to the PWSS were anything but fully addressed.
Ms Montgomery says they remain “unfinished” business.
She added that there was little the PWSS could do anyway.
“The problem with PWSS is they actually have no powers,” Ms Montgomery said.
“All they can do is make recommendations. That’s the problem.”
The PWSS is not commenting on the matter.
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says the Prime Minister has more explaining to do.
“The question for the Prime Minister is, did the Labor Party contact these people and speak to them because they are allegations, but they’re serious ones,” Senator Canavan said on Nine’s Today Show.
“And what sort of due diligence did the Labor Party do before taking someone into their ranks?”
Meanwhile, the Greens, who denied Senator Cox leadership roles in the party, have had to reshuffle portfolios in light of the defection.
Greens leader Larissa Water has added the Indigenous affairs role to her own responsibilities.
It comes as the founder of First Nations group Save Our Songlines has harshly condemned Senator Cox (who is a Yamatji-Noongar woman) over her changing position on Labor’s decision to approve the North West Shelf gas project extension.
Raelene Cooper, a Mardathoonera woman, said Senator Dorinda Cox had done little for grassroots Aboriginal communities or help them protect the area concerned.
“Does Senator Cox still believe the government she just joined is ‘colluding with the gas industry’ like she claimed while standing next to me at a press conference in Canberra last year?” she asked.
“Does Senator Cox still believe Murujuga traditional custodians are ‘gagged’ by the government, like she stated at a Senate inquiry I attended last year?
“Does she still believe UNESCO’s draft decision that industry is degrading rock art on the Burrup means this government must ‘prevent any further industrial development within the Murujuga Cultural Landscape’, like she said last week?
“And does she still intend to ‘reintroduce the We All Come Together For Country Bill 2025 to amend the EPBC Act [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999] to protect and preserve sites like Murujuga from destructive industrial emissions and keep fighting for stronger cultural heritage protections’, a bill she has stated was ‘fairly and squarely about the extension of the North West Shelf?'”
“Senator Cox does not speak for traditional custodians of Murujuga, for Aboriginal people or for Western Australia. She and this government deserve each other – good riddance.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
