Victorian Greens deputy deputy resigns over affair with employee

Greens leader Ellen Sandell said on Friday that she learned of the Hibbins affair on Tuesday evening.

“I’m angry,” Sandell said. “Too often, women are the ones who pick up the pieces. The Prime Minister had to do it. I’m doing it here today.”

The Greens leader said she had called a party room meeting at 7pm on Tuesday after being contacted by the Department of Parliamentary Services. During that meeting, Hibbins was suspended from the parliamentary party and stripped of his title and portfolios as co-deputy.

Sandell said the media was not notified until Friday because the earliest the staffer could meet her was Thursday.

She did not call for him to resign from parliament altogether, but said she believed his behavior fell short of “the expectations people would expect from an MP”.

“Unfortunately that is not a decision I can make. I took every action within my power. He will never again be welcome as a member of our banquet hall.”

Hibbins will sit on the crossbench alongside South Barwon MP Darren Cheeseman, who was expelled from the Labor caucus in April.

Another former Labor MP, Member for Ringwood Will Fowles, resigned from the parliamentary Labor Party in 2023 following an assault allegation against a former staffer, which he denied. In January, police closed an investigation into the alleged assault and filed no charges.

In his statement Friday, Hibbins said he acknowledged he had made a significant error in judgment.

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“At a time when life is so difficult for so many, when people are struggling and have already disconnected from politics, I know something like this will further shake people’s trust in politicians and politics,” he said.

“The most important thing is to make amends and focus on what really matters. For me it is my beautiful family.”

Hibbins became the Greens’ deputy leader in April, alongside first-term MP Sarah Mansfield, after former leader Samantha Ratnam announced she was leaving state politics to run for the federal seat of Wills.

In a now-deleted social media post, Hibbins wished his “amazing, beautiful” wife a happy 40th birthday on social media in March. He also thanked her in his first speech when they were engaged at the time.

“She has been a tremendous support, without which support I would not be here today,” he told parliament in 2015.

Since winning the seat of Prahran from the Liberals in the November 2014 election, Hibbins has campaigned for food price caps and spoken out against privatization.

The Allan government promised to introduce a new independent commissioner in 2023 to investigate complaints against MPs. It followed recommendations from Operation Watts and from then-sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins, who investigated the working environment in federal parliamentary offices.

In April, The era reported that the state government would miss the June deadline for the integrity commissioner to begin in this role, and that time frame is now expected to be pushed back to 2025.