'No animosity': Greens Leader Larissa Waters accepts Senator Dorinda Cox’s move to Labor

The federal Greens are taking the sudden defection of one of their senators to Labor on the chin, saying they have no animosity toward her.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Perth on Monday, West Australian senator Dorinda Cox announced she was quitting the Greens to sit with Labor in the upper house.

The surprise move is a setback for the minor party, which has now lost its only Indigenous representative after losing three of its four lower house seats in the May federal election.

Leader Larissa Waters said she received a phone call from Senator Cox an hour before her press conference with Mr Albanese.

“We had a very calm and measured conversation about it, and I do genuinely wish her all the best,” she told the ABC on Tuesday.

“There’s no animosity there. It’s obviously disappointing for us to lose a Greens senator, but Dorinda has said her values lie there.”

But Senator Waters appeared to question this while pointing to Labor’s decision to extend the North West Shelf gas project off the West Australian coast, which she said would impact ancient Indigenous rock art.

“Those values are not consistent with Greens values,” she said.

“We’ve opposed that. But Senator Cox has made her decision that that party is a better fit for her, and we wish her nothing but the best.”

Asked about Senator Cox becoming the second Indigenous woman to quit the Greens - after now-independent senator Lydia Thorpe - Senator Waters said they had “very different reasons” for leaving.

“The Greens remain entirely committed to strong advocacy on truth telling, on treaties, on justice, on healing, on reparations,” she said.

Senator Cox, a Yamatji-Noongar woman, joined the upper house in 2021 to fill a Greens vacancy and had been the party’s Indigenous affairs spokesperson.

In 2024, she suggested the Albanese government was “not interested” in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

But on Monday, Senator Cox said she felt her values and priorities were better aligned with Labor than the Greens.

“I’ve worked hard to make Australia fairer and much more reconciled, but recently, I’ve lost some confidence in the capacity for the Greens to assist me in being able to progress this,” she told reporters.

While she was not required to run in the May election after winning a six-year term in 2022, Senator Cox reportedly had concerns about her likely position on the WA Greens senate ticket going into the 2028 poll.

Mr Albanese said Senator Cox, the first Indigenous woman to represent WA in the upper house, approached him about the switch.

Senator Cox was accused of bullying Greens staffers in 2024, with as many as 20 employees leaving in three years and complaints made to parliament’s workplace support service.

Mr Albanese said the allegations had been examined.

“They were all dealt with in Senator Cox’s case and dealt with appropriately,” he said.

Labor will still require the support of either the Greens or the coalition in the Senate to pass legislation.