EDITORIAL: Hypocrisy galling as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomes Greens turncoat

Anthony Albanese has no time for political turncoats who disrespect the will of voters by defecting from the party through which they were elected.

When Fatima Payman quit the Labor Party following a stoush over the recognition of Palestinian statehood, he was unequivocal in his assessment.

“Fatima Payman received around about 1600 votes in the WA election. The ALP box above the line received 511,000 votes,” he said.

“It’s very clear that Fatima Payman is in the Senate because people in WA wanted to elect a Labor Government and that’s why they put a number one in the box above the line next to Australian Labor Party rather than vote below the line for any individual.”

But that logic doesn’t work in reverse.

It certainly doesn’t apply to Senator Dorinda Cox, whom he has welcomed to Labor with open arms.

“(What) struck me as we were sitting down having a discussion about this, that the reason why Dorinda has made this decision is the same reason why all those years ago, as a very young man, I made a decision to join the Labor Party,” Mr Albanese said on Monday.

“You want to make a difference, that the way that you make a difference is by being a member of a party of government, that the values that Dorinda has are perfectly consistent with the values of the Labor Party.”

Unlike Senator Payman, Senator Cox doesn’t even have the fig leaf of a principle — however misguided — to justify her defection from the Greens to Labor.

Her decision is driven only by naked self interest.

Senator Cox — who last year apologised following claims that 20 staff had left her office, some of whom lodged bullying complaints — had so antagonised her former party that it was clear she had no hope of winning preselection when her term expires at the next election.

So, she’s taken the punt on a new team. Her position on Labor’s 2028 Senate ticket is unlikely to be high, if she makes it on at all, but she will reason that it’s at least worth a shot.

Never mind that her Damascene moment comes just a week after she co-signed a statement in which she said Labor’s Environment Minister Murray Watt has “spectacularly failed” in his job by approving an extension to Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project.

The hypocrisy displayed by both Mr Albanese and Senator Cox is galling.

Mr Albanese’s is exacerbated by the fact that Labor isn’t even getting anything of note out of the arrangement.

Another Senator on the Government’s side won’t materially change its ability to pass legislation in the Upper House.

The only thing to be gained for Labor from the arrangement is an opportunity to further erode the Greens’ presence in Parliament.

And in return, Labor takes on a member who has proven herself to be of fickle loyalty.

It may turn out to be a very bad bargain.