Business owner alleges she was ‘grabbed’ by Julie Anne Genter
Saturday, 4 May 2024
Another allegation has come to light against Green MP Julie Anne Genter, with a business owner claiming the MP, who is working from home after an incident this week in Parliament, grabbed her arm “and gave it quite a strong shake” as they spoke.
Wellington business owner Nicola Cranfield said she saw Genter at Midlands Park at the end of last year.
“I didn’t know if it was her, so I said, ‘excuse me, are you Julie Anne Genter?’
“I was really curious to know about the letter that she had originally written to [former mayor] Justin Lester and I've never been able to get any clarification on it. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is a great opportunity’.
“I asked her about it and she immediately got really, really defensive and quite… She definitely blocked me and didn't want to talk about it.
“I also said to her, ‘you might not realise but I've got a retail store just there and I just don't think it would be viable if [the Golden Mile] goes ahead.’
Cranfield, who has run the Cranfields homewear store on Johnstone St for 25 years, is closing this year after 33 years of business in Wellington, citing uncertainty over the Golden Mile project.
“I thought maybe she doesn't hear stories on the ground. Maybe everything's filtered through and that could be useful information for her and that was when she grabbed my arm and gave it quite a strong shake.”
Cranfield said she was quite “quite surprised that she grabbed my arm”, and said it felt “really inappropriate”.
“I was so shocked… I was just like, ‘oh, that’s next-level to be grabbed by a politician.
“I sort of pulled away … It wasn’t just like a squeeze, it was a… She held on for a bit.“
Cranfield said she did not have time to wallow about the alleged incident.
“I'm just a small business. It's just me on my own. It's not like I can go and talk about it with HR or workshop it.”
A Green Party spokesperson said co-leader Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick “had no prior knowledge of the allegations regarding Julie Anne Genter that have recently come to light”.
Several complaints have been made to Speaker Gerry Brownlee about Genter’s behaviour, after she crossed the Debating Chamber on Wednesday night to remonstrate with National’s Matt Doocey. Within the Green Party a disciplinary process is under way.
In the following days, a Wellington florist told The Post Genter had “bullied” her when the pair had a disagreement in the Newtown shop about cycleways being built in the area. Laura Newcombe of Four Seasons Florist said during the heated discussion Genter pulled out her phone and focused it on her face, which Newcombe said she found intimidating.
Simon Woolf, formerly a Wellington city councillor, now with the Greater Wellington Regional Council, alleged an incident in 2019 where he was photographing an event, in a personal business capacity, outside Parliament. Genter was attending as associate transport minister. Just a few months earlier Lets Get Wellington Moving had been launched, sparking heated debate about cycleways and mass rapid transit.
Woolf said Genter “came right up to my face and complained bitterly about the slow progress with the city council and the cycleway implementation. I had to tell her three times that I wasn’t there as a councillor, I had two cameras around my neck, and that I was there as a photographer”.
The Green Party spokesperson also said the party “had already taken disciplinary action after Wednesday’s incident in Parliament, which was clearly unacceptable and fell short of the high standards the Green Party expects of its MPs”.
'As part of the disciplinary action Julie Anne will be receiving professional and personal support to ensure incidents of this nature never happen again.'
There was no comment from Genter, the spokesperson said.