On Monday, Bandt declined to answer questions about what he and his office had done about the staff exodus and the complaints about the senator.

“We have a very clear approach to this. Everyone has the right to a safe workplace. And when a number of complaints were made a few years ago by staff from other political parties in this place, we had a big discussion here, quite rightly, about how we’re going to make sure that in parliament, everyone has the right to safety,” Bandt said. .

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“Whenever any member of staff wants to raise an issue, there has to be confidence that it will be looked at independently, that it will not be treated as a party political matter, that it will be looked at independently. Now, as a result, some pretty important institutions have been established here. One of these is PWSS.

“And now there is a new institution (Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission) which will be operational soon. The PWSS has the power to receive complaints from staff members but also to investigate and also make findings.”

Asked if he had full confidence in Cox, Bandt said, “Yes, I do.”

Faruqi said all political staff deserved to be safe in their workplace “and the Greens are very serious about providing that safety to every member of staff in this workplace”.

She did not respond when asked why the national Greens did not respond quickly to the allegations, while branches in NSW and Victoria have done so in relation to complaints about state MPs in recent years.

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