The Greens have been accused by multiple women of mishandling complaints about sexual misconduct.

Women who have complained to the Greens about sexual misconduct say the party has failed them by putting its reputation ahead of their welfare.

A long-running ABC investigation has uncovered multiple claims by women that the party mismanaged their complaints about alleged sexual misconduct and harassment.

One woman alleges NSW Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham touched her inappropriately in 2011.

Mr Buckingham strenuously denies the claim and the complaint is still being investigated by the NSW Greens.

Ella Buckland did not initially report the alleged incident to the Greens, saying she felt she was "not supported in the party".

When she finally reported the matter to the NSW Greens earlier this year she said her complaint was mishandled.

"No one wanted to deal with me," she said.

"It was a bit of buck passing. No one really knew what to do."

Ms Buckland says she went to Mr Buckingham's Newtown home with another woman after Friday night drinks in August 2011.

When they arrived at the house, she says Mr Buckingham served more drinks.

"Quite quickly I realised that something was happening between this woman and Jeremy," Ms Buckland said.

"They were touching each other a lot, it was getting really flirtatious. I was really uncomfortable."

Ms Buckland said she stopped drinking and became so "disgusted" by Mr Buckingham's behaviour that she took a video.

"I wanted to gently remind him that he was a public figure and that his behaviour was not acceptable," she said.

"I knew at the time that Jeremy was married with two children."

What she says happened next is now the subject of an investigation by the Greens.

While there are conflicting versions of events, Ms Buckland's complaint says she left the house and was standing in the street when Mr Buckingham came up behind her, grabbed her inappropriately and kissed her neck.

"I flung my hands up and said 'no', and started walking away very fast towards the main road," she said.

"I was really shocked and I was afraid because I was on a dark street. I just wanted to get home."

Jeremy Buckingham says the allegation is false and female witnesses would corroborate that.

The next day, Ms Buckland said Mr Buckingham called her on her mobile phone.

"He said something like, 'It must be hard working for Jan [Barham]'," Ms Buckland said.

Jan Barham was another NSW Greens MLC and Ms Buckland's boss.

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"I didn't really know what he meant, and he said, 'well I hope it doesn't get any harder for you'.

"I was very intimidated."

Ms Buckland quit her job in 2012.

She went overseas and when she returned, she said she disclosed the alleged incident to another Greens MP and a Greens candidate.

Both said they were sorry but offered no further support or advice, she said.

In January this year, she wrote to Greens MP David Shoebridge after seeing his Facebook post supporting another woman who had been sexually assaulted.

"He was great," she said.

"He directed me to a number of services and he offered his support."

She made a formal complaint to the NSW Greens in April and spoke to acting state manager Lesa de Leau.

Ms de Leau referred her complaint to Work Dynamic, an external complaints company.

Ms Buckland sent a statement to Work Dynamic in May.

More recently, she also contacted the office of the Federal Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, and was referred to the Australian Greens convenor.

She did not hear from Work Dynamic again until Monday, after the ABC contacted the Greens about her complaint.

The NSW Greens and Work Dynamic told the ABC the report has not been finalised.

However, Mr Buckingham said Ms de Leau told him the investigation had concluded and found the allegations were unsubstantiated.

He said the Greens should immediately release the report to "clear my name".

"Withholding the report was a denial of natural justice and part of an ongoing factional attack," he said.

But, Ms de Leau said in a statement: "I did not tell Mr Buckingham that the investigation was closed nor did I tell him that the allegation/s had not been substantiated."

"I did voice a personal impression about the likelihood of the allegations being substantiated, which I should not have done.

"I should not have said it. It was a breach of our policies on confidentiality, and I am deeply sorry."

An ABC investigation can reveal Ella Buckland's experience of the Greens' complaints process is not unique.

She is one of a series of women who complained about sexual misconduct and say that their complaints were poorly managed.

Lawyer Rory Markham is advising a number of women who say the Greens party mishandled their complaints of sexual assault and harassment.

They include cases in the ACT, Victoria and NSW.

"This is a party that seems to have certain core values but at the same time, not realise those values to the women that desperately need it," Mr Markham said.

"The attitude has to be one of absolute dismissiveness and to maintain party brand at all costs."

Mr Markham is suing the party on behalf of a former Greens volunteer who alleges she was sexually assaulted by another volunteer in the back of a car in Canberra on the night of the 2016 federal election campaign. She has asked not to be identified.

"That perpetrator cornered her, forced her, by placing his hands on her shoulders into the side of the car and whispered into her ear that he hated her and then started to digitally penetrate her," Mr Markham said.

"She was speechless. She couldn't scream out. She immediately got out of the car and was shaking."

Mr Markham said the ACT Greens' response to his client's complaint was to deny liability and insist it was a police matter.

"I have never seen a more amateur organisation that has little to no organisational structure to deal with very serious issues of volunteer protection," he said.

Holly Brooke was co-convenor of the NSW Young Greens in 2017, when she says a male party member indecently assaulted her.

She made a formal complaint to the Greens after a male party volunteer tried to force his hand down her pants.

Ms Brooke, who was 23 years old at the time, said when she complained it was suggested she could teach a consent workshop to the man.

"Why am I being asked to sit down and kindly explain what constitutes a violation of consent to this person?" Ms Brooke said.

"It just made so little sense to me."

She said the Greens' response was "more traumatic than the instance itself".

Ms Brooke reported it to the party four months after the incident when she heard the man was planning to stay in shared Young Greens accommodation with her at the next state delegates meeting.

She spoke to NSW Greens acting party manager Lesa de Leau.

Ms de Leau found somewhere else for the man to stay but Ms Brooke said she felt like an inconvenience for raising the issue.

"I think none of the processes existed even at that point to deal with this kind of thing," she said.

"They didn't know what to do, but it's kind of their job to come up with that."

After making her complaint, Ms Brooke said she faced months of waiting for a response from the party.

"Because the Greens view themselves as so progressive and so feminist that this can't possibly be a problem that contributes to a situation in which they won't even work on an appropriate response."

Ms de Leau said all relevant policy guidelines had been followed.

"[I] am deeply saddened to hear that any complainant whose allegations I handled was not able to reach a satisfactory outcome from the policy," she said.

Journalist Lauren Ingram claims she was violently raped by a Greens party volunteer in 2015 after he invited her over to his apartment in Sydney's eastern suburbs for pizza.

After reporting it to the police, and later complaining to the Greens, Ms Ingram did not hear anything from the party for months despite being told he had been the subject of other complaints ranging from sexual harassment to assault.

"I just got so angry," Ms Ingram said.

"So I tweeted about what happened to me in detail, with some evidence that I had in terms of photos of my injuries and text messages.

"I tweeted his name and said that he raped me."

After the tweets went viral, the NSW Greens issued a press release saying the party had suspended Ms Ingram's alleged rapist four days after they received her complaint.

"We are devastated for the woman involved and that accusations of this nature have surfaced within the party," Greens NSW co-convenor Debbie Gibson said in the June 2017 statement.

The party said it was reviewing and strengthening policies dealing with sexual assault, violence and harassment.

"People got very upset. The NSW Greens themselves tried to claim that they had done something. They clearly hadn't," Ms Ingram said.

"I never got anything formal in response saying this is how we've dealt with it. All I got, all I saw was the press release."

She said she was surprised by the way the party handled her complaint, first in its reluctance to investigate her complaint and then in response to her going public on Twitter.

"I certainly thought that the party would do better. I'd hoped the party would do better."

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The NSW Greens say that Ms Ingram's alleged rapist has been suspended from the party indefinitely.

The women who have shared their stories with the ABC want to see a change in party culture and procedures to protect other women when they complain about assault and harassment.

Ms Buckland is calling on the Greens to conduct an internal review of how they handle the complaints procedures for sexual assault.

"I think the Greens also need training in how to take complaints from women like me. So that women like me feel supported and empowered."

Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard Di Natale said it was "devastating" that the party's complaints handling was letting women down.

"This is not good enough," he said.

"Everyone should expect to feel safe in all aspects of their lives. And we let people down a second time when their complaints are not handled sensitively and in a timely manner."

He apologised to the women, saying the national party would work with NSW to review their process.

"We are very sorry that our response left you feeling alone and unsupported. You deserved better."

NSW Greens co-convenor Rochelle Flood, who had no involvement in handling any of the complaints, said the state party would review its policies.

"As a woman myself obviously I'm concerned if people feel that the only recourse they have to get justice is to go to the media," she said.

"I think this is a crucial moment for us as a party. We need to look at what's occurred, we need to review what we're doing."

Lauren Ingram, who was never a member of the party, said the party was not living up to its progressive ideals.

"I think they need to think about what their party stands for and really practice what they preach."