The Greens sacked their own internal disciplinary body after it found Senator Janet Rice should be censured for a “calculated and inflammatory” campaign against another party member, which brought the party into disrepute and damaged its electoral prospects.
In the latest episode of a destructive gender war raging inside the party, a Victorian Greens misconduct panel last week judged that Senator Rice, a prominent trans rights advocate, had harassed long-serving party member Linda Gale because of her conflicting views about sex and gender identity.
The finding triggered an extraordinary sequence of backroom political manoeuvres, with a meeting of state council rejecting the finding against the senator and resolving to stand down all misconduct panel members, change the rules governing future appointments and redact any mention of the censure decision from minutes of the meeting.
The overt political interference in the party’s disciplinary processes appalled some party members. One described it as “the most corrupt conduct” they had witnessed inside the Victorian Greens. Another likened the decision to sack misconduct panel members to a Leninist purge.
Source: Victorian Greens’ trans feud: Party sacks its own disciplinary body after Janet Rice censure finding