Could today be Darleen Tana’s last day in Parliament?

Thursday, 17 October 2024

The Green Party will today meet to decide whether to eject its former MP Darleen Tana from Parliament - possibly signalling the final day of Tana’s political career as she knows it.

It would also mark the first time since the Electoral Act was amended in 2018 that a party has deliberately ousted a former member from Parliament.

It’s been seven months almost to the day a Stuff investigation revealed Tana, elected to the party in 2023 and who gave her maiden speech less than a year ago, may have been aware that migrant employees of her husband’s ebike business had complained they hadn’t been paid.

The claims triggered a long-running saga that included a months-long independent investigation by the Greens, a war of words between Tana and Green co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, and High Court action.

An independent investigation commissioned by the Greens, carried out by barrister Rachel Burt, found Tana likely knew about the employment complaints, although she strenuously denied it, but had failed to disclose them to the party. Burt found that Tana and her husband were not credible witnesses.

The executive summary also detailed an alleged confrontation between Tana and one of the former employees, in which she was alleged to have approached him at his new job which led to the complainant calling the police.

After the report was finalised Swarbrick said Tana had fallen “far, far short of expectations”, had been “far from upfront” and Swarbrick felt “utterly betrayed”. At that point Swarbrick said the party no longer believed Tana was fit for Parliament and urged her to resign.

In July, Swarbrick and Davidson wrote to Tana to inform her that it was their view that her resignation from the party, but not resigning from Parliament, had distorted the proportionality of political party representation.

This was a step required by law - an amendment to the Electoral Act which ironically the Greens previously opposed - in order to oust her from Parliament. Tana was given 21 days to respond - when she did, in August, she reiterated she would not be resigning.

A defiant Tana said she was “gobsmacked” and “heartbroken” by the Greens’ campaign to expel her and that she hadn’t done anything wrong that would merit being kicked out of Parliament.

Meanwhile, the Greens had scheduled a meeting for September 1, to vote on whether to eject Tana from Parliament.

But that special general meeting was postponed after Tana filed legal action in the High Court, claiming the Greens had acted unlawfully in their disciplinary proceedings. The judicial review application and injunction saw the Greens pause any so-called waka-jumping action.

But in September Justice David Johnstone threw out the claim, paving the way once more for the Greens to meet.

A scheduled meeting is set to go ahead today, despite Tana this week appealing the ruling.

So, what happens today?

If two thirds of members agree that Tana should be expelled from Parliament - that number is required under law, although the Greens have said they will proceed only with a 75% consensus - the Greens would then write to the Speaker, Gerry Brownlee.

By law they must inform him they reasonably believe that Tana has acted in a way that has distorted and is likely to continue to distort, the proportionality of representation in Parliament, and that it has the backing of at least two thirds of its members. That statement to the speaker essentially forces Tana from the seat.

Swarbrick - in a tough position given the Greens previous opposition to the law - previously said she was following the law based on “extensive engagement” with party membership.

“This is a far cry from the black-letter law process that would enable Green MPs to just do this of our own accord. We will only progress with the use of this law with the backing of our Green MPs and our Party.”

The Speaker would then need to notify Parliament that the seat has been vacated.

As a list MP, Tana’s seat would go to the next person on the party’s list, which would be University of Waikato researcher Benjamin Doyle.

It’s understood the Greens are likely to advise as soon as it’s made its decision, although how long the Speaker will take to declare the seat vacant is unclear. Parliament doesn’t sit on a Friday, and resumes instead next Tuesday.

Electoral law expert Andrew Geddis said if Tana was expelled it would mark the first time a party has ousted a MP from Parliament since the laws were updated in 2018.

Recent cases of parties who’ve had MPs leave to become independent - in the cases of Gaurav Sharma, Elizabeth Kerekere, Jami-Lee Ross - has seen them wait for the next election cycle to dump them.

There was only one fish-hook, Geddis said, Tana could still potentially file an 11th hour injunction to prevent the meeting from going ahead.

Tana last night reiterated to The Post, that she was “stepping through the process to clear my name. I maintain that I have done nothing wrong, am doing my MP mahi just as I was elected to do. I am saddened that [the] Green Party members are brought into a situation that asks them to go hard against long-standing policy position on the party hopping legislation…heartbreaking frankly to observe the Greens say one thing and yet do the opposite.”