Jordon Steele-John has accused an internal faction within the Greens of playing “nasty political games” and the leader, David Shoebridge, of pressuring him to take leave after complaints about his conduct were made public last week.
The 32-year-old Greens senator released a six-page statement on Sunday night after Nine newspapers reported last week that seven former and current party members had demanded an investigation into allegations he had acted inappropriately towards women between 2017 and 2025.
The complaints are now subject to an independent investigation commissioned by the Western Australian Greens and have been referred to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.
Steele-John said in the statement he wanted any alleged behaviour investigated “fairly and thoroughly” but claimed an “unofficial faction” within the WA branch had released the complaint letter to the media in a bid to oust him from the Senate.
“It is no coincidence that the letter arrived at the leader’s office the day after we agreed on the timeline for the next preselection,” Steele-John said on Sunday.
“It is my opinion that this is an attempt to influence forthcoming party preselections by deliberately leaking out of context or misleading information to smear potential candidates and myself.”
Steele-John said some of the letter’s authors and signatories may have signed the letter out of “genuine commitment” to people who experienced violence but he was angry it had been politicised.
“When processes meant to protect victims are turned into weapons in preselection contests, everyone loses. Survivors become less likely to be believed. Real complaints are treated with suspicion. And the people who did this know it,” he said.
“That is not accountability. It is factionalism, and it has no place in the Greens.”
The senator said he was not on leave, contrary to Shoebridge’s comments last week, and that he had been pressured by the leader to request leave on Thursday as Nine’s story was breaking.
“I feel that he used those meetings to repeatedly pressure me to say that I would take leave,” Steele-John said.
The senator said “survivors of family violence are entitled to make decisions about their own lives and the Greens have always said so”.
“It was a bad call from David. We’ve all made those in politics. So, to be clear, I am not on leave and did not agree to the inclusion of that line within David’s statement.”
Shoebridge said on Thursday that Steele-John had requested leave from the party room “and I have accepted it”.
“Senator Steele-John has indicated to me that he’s on leave, and that leave means leave,” the Greens leader said on Friday.
Guardian Australia contacted Shoebridge’s office for comment on Sunday night.
Steele-John said the letter of complaint to Shoebridge referred to three matters but it did not set out any allegations in detail.
Addressing a disparaging nickname – “feels on wheels” – the senator said he believed it originated because he was emotional during speeches early in his career regarding the disability royal commission. The nickname, however, had taken on a new meaning in recent time, he said in Sunday’s statement.
“Over the years, this nickname would periodically resurface like strategic clockwork, growing in lore each time.
“Eventually, I was informed that this phrase, which mocked my disability and my emotions, had taken on a new, more sinister meaning: that I had treated women inappropriately.”
Steele-John said another matter contained in the letter related to alleged sexual harassment at a Greens campaign party in 2024; however, the authors did not outline specific allegations.
The senator said the final matter related to alleged “serious sexual misconduct”.
An investigation into alleged sexual assault was ultimately closed by the Western Australian police with a finding of no charges, he said. Comment was sought from WA police.
“It took people close to me to make me realise that I was experiencing domestic violence,” Steele-John said in Sunday’s statement.
Nine last week reported on the existence of a 47-page “secret dossier”, first drafted in 2016, which the newspaper said contained allegations against Steele-John and how the party should respond if they were to come to light.
Steele-John said on Sunday he had an “interpersonal conflict” between himself and two friends in 2016 before he was preselected. The senator alleged the unofficial faction had attempted to shop the “half-heard rumours” of the conflict to journalists in 2017 as part of a “smear campaign”.
As a result, Steele-John said, the document was created so the party office and staff had “the same accurate information to give anyone who had heard the rumours and was concerned”.