‘A horror start’ for the Greens as more scandal hits the party
Saturday, 16 March 2024
Green MP Darleen Tana has been suspended after complaints of migrant exploitation at her husband's company.
She is the third Green MP to have become embroiled in scandal over the past year.
Political commentators say the party must quickly move past this latest issue.
Just days into the job as co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick has suspended an MP over connections to an alleged case of migrant worker exploitation.
Experts in crisis management say it’s been a “horror start” for Swarbrick, as the party’s brand risks being marred by repeated MP drama and scandal.
The Greens have been dealing with fires for about a year now. It started with the fallout between the caucus and MP Elizabeth Kerekere. Then in December, the party heard the first reports that Golriz Ghahraman was accused of shoplifting. Those would eventually be made public in January, leading to further instances of shoplifting to emerge.
The latest scandal faces newbie MP Darleen Tana.
At the start of February, Tana told the Green co-leaders of an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) complaint against the company she used to run with her husband. She is no longer a director, but was included in the complaint from former employee Santiago Latour Palma, who said she refused to help him get $25,000 in wages he said he was owed.
When Tana told the Greens about this complaint in February, she lost her position as small business spokesperson. Although, that change went unnoticed by pretty much everyone and the party offered no explanation for the change. Then on Thursday, when Stuff raised questions with the party, Swarbrick and Marama Davidson suspended Tana and ordered an “independent investigation”.
Janet Wilson, a Post columnist and former National Party chief press secretary, said the party should have taken stronger action sooner.
“The story instantly had legs because we were informed that she was stood down over a month ago. Instantly, the story has more of a narrative than if they had just announced she had been stood down back in February,” Wilson said.
“They’re taking too long to cauterize these events.”
She said delays responding to accusations against Ghahraman, and sitting on information from Tana for over a month, meant these issues had snowballed in the public eye. Wilson said removing Tana’s spokesperson role, but not telling anyone about that, didn’t help.
“It's the old philosophical question, ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ To be transparent you have to act transparently in every respect. There hasn't been a lot of that occurring.”
A new era, amid errors, at the Greens
At October’s election, the Green Party returned with it biggest ever caucus: 15 MPs. Of those, the majority were being elected for the first time.
Since then, Ghahraman resigned and James Shaw has announced his intention to resign. The caucus is now fairly inexperienced, and increasingly features people who were ranked relatively far down the list. The party has also just elected a new co-leader to replace Shaw.
Wilson said it was a “horror start” for Swarbrick as co-leader, and would test her leadership ability.
Although it wasn’t all bad news.
“As a newly minted leader, the mud on her will not stick as it possibly could on Marama. I think there is an opportunity here with the new blood to really have a new beginning and draw a line underneath it,” she said.
Clint Smith, a director at Victor Consulting and former Labour communications advisor, agreed that Swarbrick offered “new opportunity” for the Greens - but first she would need to overcome this latest scandal.
“They cannot let themselves be dragged down by a brand new MP,” he said.
“And there is going to have to be a rebuild. They have lost experienced MPs. So this will come down to the leaders… but I come back to the fact Chlöe Swarbrick is a good campaigner and if they can find issues that resonate, they will be able to put today’s problems behind them.”
Lessons for rebuilding
Former Labour leader Andrew Little said, in practice, party leaders cannot - as Wilson calls it - “cauterize” scandals so easily.
“You have to deal with people fairly and reasonably, with principles of natural justice,” he said.
Little said Swarbrick was well placed to unite the caucus, but would need to ensure the new MPs were quickly brought up to speed.
“She’s a pretty incredible force and doesn’t strike me as somebody who is easily fazed,” Little said.
In Labour, he said they’d “buddy up” new MPs with those who had experience. Wilson said lesson one would need to be about disclosure.
There could not be any more surprise scandals from the Green caucus, she said.
“They need due diligence, rigorous due diligence,” she said.
“One of the first things you've got to do with anyone is say to them, ‘where are your skeletons?’ Not, ‘do you have any?’ Ask where they are because everyone has a skeleton.”