Nervous wait for Greens as Darleen Tana considers next move
Tuesday, 9 July 2024
A nervous wait hangs over the Green Party as Darleen Tana considers her next move. Should she choose to remain an MP, the result could send the Greens down the path of regurgitating the dead rat it swallowed in 2018.
A furious Chlöe Swarbrick on Monday revealed the news Tana had resigned from the Green Party and urged her to resign from Parliament, the Green Party co-leader describing feeling “utterly betrayed”.
It followed the party voting to urge Tana to leave Parliament for breaching its code of conduct, after an investigation into claims she was aware of complaints of migrant exploitation at her husband’s business.
About five hours after Swarbrick’s press conference, Tana released a statement saying she did not feel natural justice had been followed during the process.
“I want to make it clear that I do not accept the findings of the report and believe that it substantially misrepresents the level of my involvement in my husband’s business.
“This was an investigation into what I knew and should have disclosed to my party leadership. I am therefore deeply concerned by the party’s summary of the findings. The report does not say that migrant exploitation has occurred, let alone that I am responsible for it in any capacity.”
Tana can remain in Parliament as an independent MP, but under Parliament’s ‘waka jumping’ rules, MPs that resign or are expelled from their party can also be expelled from Parliament.
It leaves the door open for an awkward situation for the Greens, who supported the legislation in 2018, describing it as swallowing a dead rat, before making initial moves in 2020 to support National in unsuccessfully repealing it.
Asked how it would work if she chose to enact the waka jumping provisions, Swarbrick said, “I don't actually know because we haven't discussed what it would look like for us to do anything like that”.
It is likely the Green Party would need to have discussions with the wider membership around its use.
Asked if she would be happy for Tana to remain in Parliament, Swarbrick said it was the Greens’ unanimous view “Darleen Tana is at this point not fit to be a Member of Parliament”.
Political commentator Ben Thomas said the Green Party were vocal critics of the law, but “ironically, ACT also opposed the law the first time there was waka jumping legislation in 2001, and then they were the first” to invoke it.
Thomas said the Green Party may find itself in a position where its voters and values 'outweighs the general … distaste for the bill or for the legislation“.
Former United Future leader Peter Dunne said he had been through the experience of having had a list MP defect, “and it's quite frustrating, because they're only there because of the party vote, and that's the same in Darleen Tana’s case”.
“When they go, they take their share of their funding with them, so that affects the party as a whole. While I'm not in favour of waka jumping, I do think there is an argument that can be made in respect of list MPs who leave their party.”
He said it was also “quite a procedure”, with a stand down period, then the Speaker has to be persuaded “that there's a case to answer, and then you've got the ability of the affected MP to come back and argue the counter”.
“If Tana stays in Parliament and says, ‘I'm going to vote with the Green Party on all issues’, it's pretty hard to argue that her defection or her leaving the party breaches proportionality.
“I think in most cases, if not all cases where it's where people sought to apply it, they've either not proceeded or given up because it's too complex.”
Hamilton Greens candidate Benjamin Doyle is next on the party list to enter Parliament if Tana vacates her seat.
Former MP Gaurav Sharma, who triggered a by-election in 2022 after leaving Parliament, said the waka jumping provisions have “serious implications” for democracy.
Sharma left Parliament after he said he was informed Labour was considering using the waka jumping legislation.Then-Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern insisted she had no plans to enact the provision.
Sharma told The Post “MPs have very little say when it comes to Bills and policies”.
“Having the waka jumping bill hanging over MPs who may not agree with the party means these MPs with difference of opinion can be easily eliminated.
“This is bad for our democracy and for the voters who elect the MPs to represent a range of opinion.”
On Swarbrick’s leadership approach, Dunne said it was “hands on, it's very controlled and controlling, but at the same time, she manages to present herself as eminently reasonable, and standing for the whole length of time and answering every question to a press conference … really reinforces that, ‘I'm genuine, I'm here to help’”.
Thomas said even under former co-leader James Shaw and Davidson, after former MP Elizabeth Kerekere quit the party in 2023 and remained as an independent MP, the Greens “have been taking a harder line”.
Dunne said the issues with the Green Party seemed “ to be having absolutely no impact on their political support. It's almost, in the Greens’ case, it seems to be either disregarded or people support them in spite of it”.
Recently, Green MP Julie Anne Genter was referred to the Privileges Committee over behaviour in the House, while former MP Golriz Ghahraman was last month ordered to pay a fine of and court costs after she admitted shoplifting.