Home Latest Australia Woman accused by Steele-John speaks out after senator reveals relationship details online

Woman accused by Steele-John speaks out after senator reveals relationship details online

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Source :  the age

The woman accused by Jordon Steele-John of sending hundreds of messages has hit back, expressing dismay the WA senator went public with details about their relationship after agreeing to an independent inquiry into allegations made against him.

In a social media post on October 18, Steele-John claimed he was never in an exclusive relationship with the Perth woman, whom this masthead has chosen not to name, and that he later took out a restraining order against her, saying she responded to the break-up by sending more than 700 messages and making 56 phone calls over 55 hours.

Senator Jordon Steele-John has been accused of harassment.Alex Ellinghausen

“After she repeatedly ignored my pleas to stop, I blocked her,” Steele-John wrote in a lengthy open letter on Instagram. “What followed were emails from various accounts, anonymous text messages, public comments on social media, and threats to destroy my reputation unless I paid the ‘invoice’.”

But the Perth woman said she had been shocked when she saw intimate details of her former relationship posted on Instagram by Steele-John, and that the senator was trying to discredit her.

“I never consented to having such intimate details of my life made public, nor to having strangers discuss them. If he thinks it will make me feel too ashamed to speak up, well, he really doesn’t know who I am,” she said.

“I will appear before the inquiry. I’m also hoping other people can speak up. But I have been hopeful in the past and learned not to be.”

The Perth woman’s experiences are cited in the letter signed by seven current former Greens staffers and members and handed to new Greens leader David Shoebridge, which alleged that Steele-John had acted inappropriately towards women.

Steele-John outlined the break-up of the relationship in his social media post, which started in May 2025 and ended in late September 2025, claiming it was never exclusive and that he was in a polyamorous relationship with another woman.

“The dynamic with my [former partner] was never exclusive, so this did not break any agreement, but I did not tell her about it because she had previously reacted to perceived wrongs with frightening behaviour,” he wrote.

In November 2025, Steele-John was granted an interim restraining order, ex parte, against the woman. The order imposed a number of conditions on the woman, including that the senator not be harassed, intimidated or communicated with, and that the woman not approach closer than 10 metres.

The woman’s experiences were cited in a letter handed to Greens leader David Shoebridge.Sam Mooy

After attempting to contest the interim family violence restraining order, the Perth woman and Steele-John settled out of court, and nine months later consented to a conduct agreement order in September 2026, which mirrored the interim restraining order.

The Perth woman made no admission of family or domestic violence and the court made no finding against her.

In his October 18 statement Steele-John said when he ended the relationship he was subject to a torrent of messages from the woman and was sent invoices for things like “Patience & tolerance levy”, holidays and a tattoo.

The Perth woman conceded that after finding out about Steele-John’s other partner she had a “full-on meltdown” and sent a flurry of messages, but she denied she made any threats or was harassing.

“Maybe the first one when I was dysregulated, I literally was like, ‘and I want a hairdresser appointment, and I want a massage’,” the woman told this masthead. “Like … because at that point I was just, like, this is silly. Like, I wasn’t actually serious.

“But then I, like, sent him a more formal email and that when I actually got quotes for 10 psychology sessions counselling and my GP appointment. It’s not free.“

She also said: “I’m neurodivergent myself. I’m autistic, and I’m ADHD and for me, I was just like, ‘how can you not see it’s wrong?’

The Perth woman rejected Steele-John’s public claim that the pair were not in a monogamous relationship and provided a voice memo sent by the senator on October 2, 2025, that contradicted his claim on social media.

“Yeah, there was someone else. It was not the driver of the decision [breaking up with her] I made but I was seeing someone else,” Steele-John said in the voice message.

“I did think that we were in an exclusive relationship, so what I’d done is cheat on you. So I didn’t quite … know how to bring that up, but I knew I had to, and I would, but I hadn’t yet figured out how to do that.”

The woman said monogamy was a non-negotiable condition for her because she was on immunosuppressants and was concerned about contracting an STI.

“He did have a discussion early on about how he wanted ethical non-monogamy, [that] is what he said, and I said absolutely not. I was on immunosuppressants,” she said.

Steele-John stated on social media the Perth woman had made a report to the police, the federal leader’s office, the Greens WA and media.

“The report to the police was of sexual assault – that I had, on multiple occasions, removed condoms without her knowledge while she was on top, facing me. This is just not true,” Steele-John wrote.

Removing a condom without consent is known as stealthing and is a crime in most states of Australia but not Western Australia.

After police examined the complaint against Steele-John, the investigation was closed with a finding of no charges against him.

But the Perth woman insisted the last time the pair had had sex, on September 6, 2025, that she found the condom about a metre across the room and was told by Steele-John it had fallen off.

Steele-John published the full text of the letter from the Greens on Instagram on October 25, but after furious blowback online about publishing confidential material he deleted the post and apologised.

Approached for comment by this masthead, Steele-John said: “I have spoken to the West Australian police. They have informed me that I should not comment.”

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James MassolaJames Massola is Chief Political Commentator. He has previously been National Affairs
Editor and South-East Asia Correspondent, and has won Quill and Kennedy awards and is the 2026 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01
Connect via X or email.
Hamish HastieHamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via X or email.