‘Nasty political games’: Steele-John claims rumours were weaponised, denies taking leave

October 18, 2026 — 11:30pmSenator Jordon Steele-John has accused factions within the Greens of weaponising rumours about him for political reasons, and said he was not on leave from the party despite leader David Shoebridge saying so last week.In a near 2400-word statement posted to social media on Sunday night, the WA Greens senator responded to complaints made about him in a letter by Greens members and maintained he would take part in an investigation about its contents.“Because these references have been widely reported as allegations in their own right, I want to address each one fully and directly,” he wrote.“And I will explain how my experience of family violence collided with nasty political games, and why, despite what you’ve heard, I’m not on leave.”Greens leader Senator David Shoebridge and Senator Jordon Steele-John in the Senate last Wednesday.Alex EllinghausenSteele-John’s response came after this masthead reported that seven Greens members wrote to Shoebridge last week regarding “multiple allegations” about the senator’s “behaviour in the presence of women” between 2017 and 2025.This masthead also revealed the Greens had kept a 47-page dossier that catalogued allegations against Steele-John and set out ways to shut down media coverage and monitor members who raised concerns on social media.Shoebridge commissioned an investigation last week and said Steele-John was taking leave from the party room. Steele-John strongly denied the claims against him, describing them as non-specific.In his statement on Sunday, the senator elaborated with a lengthy post that said the original letter sent to Shoebridge did not detail any allegations, only said that the authors were aware that allegations existed.Steele-John responded to three elements contained in last week’s letter before criticising the way Shoebridge handled the situation. He said that rumours had been weaponised by factions in the WA Greens who were unhappy he joined the Senate 10 years ago, and that he was not on leave as the leader claimed.The senator’s response to claims in Greens letterThe letter to Shoebridge last week said Steele-John was referred to in parliament as “feels on wheels”. This masthead chose not to report the nickname in the original story.In his statement, Steele-John said he had been called “feels on wheels” by staff within parliament because he became emotional early in his career while giving speeches about the disability royal commission.“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,” he said.“And now, in this letter, the existence of the nickname itself is the allegation.”Second, Steele-John responded to a reference in the letter to an alleged incident at a Greens event in 2024 that the writers claimed had not been reported because of fears the alleged victim would not be believed.“I’m really concerned to read this. No details were provided in the letter, so unfortunately, at this point, I don’t know how I could respond, or how anyone would begin to investigate it,” Steele-John said.The third element of his response concerns allegations made about him by a woman that he had previously dated. The statement elaborated on his initial comments last week about being a victim of family violence himself.Steele-John claimed that his original election to the Senate in 2016 had upset some Greens members “who felt that their personal political ambitions had been upended” and pressured him to resign for another candidate.He claimed those people “couldn’t move on” and recruited more members to form an unofficial faction in the WA Greens.He also said that group had heard rumours of an interpersonal conflict between him and two other people in 2017, and tried to “shop them to journalists as part of a smear campaign”.“In the lead-up to the 2019 election, the rumours resurfaced. This led to the creation of a Google Doc so that Greens staff and the party office all had the same accurate information to give anyone who had heard the rumours and was concerned. One of its main purposes was to ensure journalists didn’t bombard these two women again. Neither woman made a complaint.”Steele-John said it was “no coincidence” the letter was sent to Shoebridge “the day after we agreed on the timeline for the next preselection”.“It is my opinion that this is an attempt to influence forthcoming party pre-selections by deliberately leaking out of context or misleading information to smear potential candidates and myself.”Steele-John says he is not on leaveSteele-John said he did not ask to take leave from the party room, as Shoebridge said during press conferences last Thursday and Friday.“I very much understand the tremendous scrutiny David was under in his first week in Parliament as leader, and I have compassion for that. I also feel that he let me and my team down,” he said.“On the morning the story was about to break, we had a series of meetings about how we would respond. I understand that he was stressed. So was I. But I feel that he used those meetings to repeatedly pressure me to say that I would take leave. I was stunned by this.”Steele-John said he told Shoebridge he would need time off to look after himself but explicitly requested the leader “not to announce that I had requested leave, because I knew it would be read as validating a story where there isn’t one”.“And that is exactly what has happened,” he said. “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.”He said Shoebridge, as federal leader, did not have the power to place a Greens MP on leave from parliament, the party or the party room.“I will continue to do my job in a way that supports my staff team, my family and my community. I believe that is what the community would expect,” he said.“I do not know who signed this letter, and I suspect many did so out of a genuine commitment to people who experience violence. I share that commitment. That is exactly why I am so angry that it has been used this way.“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. That is not accountability. It is factionalism, and it has no place in the Greens.”Steele-John said he had “bitten his tongue” for years but owed it to the party and community to speak out against “a political clique who have now done so much harm to so many”.“I genuinely welcome the opportunity to participate in the Greens WA investigation process,” he said.“I trust it will be robust, independent and timely – and I will not be drawn into factional rhetoric that relies on distressing rumours with a total disregard for genuinely addressing the male violence epidemic across Australia.”Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners