Suspended MP Darleen Tana welcomes investigation, will ‘cooperate fully’
Friday, 15 March 2024
Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana is welcoming an investigation by the Green Party, sparked after an allegation of migrant exploitation at a business managed by her husband.
“I welcome an investigation and intend to cooperate fully, and I will not be commenting further,” she said in a statement.
The Green Party is facing questions about its handling of the scandal which saw the suspension of Tana yesterday.
The party is attempting to get to the bottom of serious allegations against Tana’s husband, with a migrant worker claiming they are owed $25,000 in unpaid wages. The worker claims they approached Tana for help.
Read more about the allegations here.
Greens coleader Marama Davidson told The Post inquiries from Stuff, which was investigating the claims, made it clear the party needed to investigate further, despite knowing about the allegation since February 1.
Prior to that, Davidson said they, “only on good faith conversations and own questioning through the process, were confident that a mediation to resolve matters was appropriate and that there was no prior knowledge or involvement about the allegations for Darlene herself”.
Davidson has defended keeping the matter out of the public eye in that time.
“It became clearer that we needed to investigate whether there may have been some prior knowledge from Darleen to the allegations,” Davidson said on Friday, referring to an inquiry from Stuff on Thursday.
“And [that’s] when we felt, to get to the bottom of that, an investigator being brought in to ascertain what involvement there has been and what was known.”
But political commentator and former National parliamentary staffer David Farrar says by not frontfooting the allegation, the impression was that the party was not in control.
“When it’s accusations around something that is a real issue for you, then it can bring up hypocrisy, in terms of, they knew for six weeks, did they ask the right questions, why have they only made it public here now?… especially with [ex MP] Golriz [Ghahraman] too, they were both somewhat similar in that they knew some weeks before it went public and it only went public because of media.
“You can’t just sit on it for weeks and wait for the media to ask questions. It always makes it worse. It’s not rocket science. The last two [scandals] certainly seem to be examples of how not to do it.”
Davidson said it was “only yesterday that we were advised that there may have been prior knowledge”.
“What is of concern, of course, [is] these allegations are serious…We've long stood and championed for migrant workers to be treated fairly and to have their human rights and dignity upheld.'
Davidson said it was 'raised to our attention from media, I believe, and especially the detail and nature of the allegations and the involvement, which we hadn't seen before'.
Timeline of events
On February 1, Tana informed the Green Party that a complaint had been laid with the Employment Relations Authority.
“Darleen voluntarily stepped aside from the small business portfolio. We felt that that was a protective measure, going above and beyond but as a protection measure, while a confidential mediation process went through,” says Davidson.
On February 9, they were notified of a second complaint.
“All of the complaints were related to years before she became an MP and to do with years where she was not a director or shareholder of the small business. And again, they were referred to mediation for resolution,” Davidson said.
“We had it on good faith that Darleen was not involved or had prior knowledge.”
Davidson said they would have continued the mediation process and worked towards a resolution, prior to the inquiries on Thursday.
“So we were aware that it wasn't the end of the story, but were willing to allow for the confidential mediation process to happen and then would have waited for an outcome from that.'
The Greens would hold its own investigation of Tana’s conduct, which will be run by independent barrister Rachel Burt.
“We've been quite clear that we want this to be done as quickly as possible for everyone's benefit, but also making sure that it's fair and robust and upholds natural justice processes as well,” Davidson said.
Tana’s husband, Christian Hoff-Nielsen denies the claims, saying he does not owe the worker, Santiago Latour Palma, any money, and denies that he worked there illegally or was paid in cash or had anything to do with Tana.
He said Palma was “using the position my wife is now in to make it seem somehow that something is owed, so he can create a bit of a stir and you’ve jumped on that, that’s your job”.
Correction: This story has been updated to remove a reference to Tana resigning. She has been suspended.