Greens vote to kick Darleen Tana out of Parliament
Friday, 18 October 2024
The future of Darleen Tana’s career as an independent MP appears to be set, but all eyes today will be on whether she resigns before the Speaker declares her seat vacant after the Green Party last night voted to oust her from Parliament.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the party had given Tana another small window of opportunity to resign, as it has repeatedly urged her to do, writing to her before writing to Speaker Gerry Brownlee to inform them both the party believed the proportionality of Parliament had been distorted by Tana remaining as an independent MP after she left the party.
Electoral law experts say the Speaker, if satisfied the Greens have followed the rules under the law, can then make an edict that the seat is vacant. It’s unclear how long that might take.
As of 9.30pm Tana was yet to respond to the Greens, co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said. The Post has contacted Tana for comment.
At a vote last night at an early evening meeting with 185 delegates 88% endorsed Tana leaving Parliament ‘wholeheartedly’, 9% supported ‘with reservations’, and 4% disagreed but would not block.
Swarbrick said the party had reached a consensus to write to the Speaker and it was confident proportionality was affected.
Tana’s resignation meant, “we now have 14 members in our caucus, and do not have the resources, but also [affected was] the proportional allocation of questions and otherwise speaking slots in the House”, she said.
A statement from Brownlee this morning said he will follow the process set out in the Electoral Act.
The party had “dotted its Is and crossed its Ts”, Swarbrick said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that we’ve gone above and beyond what is required [under the law].”
She described the conversation in the meeting as robust, considering the party’s “vexed” history with the law, which it has previously opposed.
Former leaders Kevin Hague and Metiria Turei spoke in the meeting - Turei’s leading of aspects of the discussion was “huge”, Swarbrick agreed.
A vexed history
It’s been a long journey - seven months since a Stuff investigation revealed Tana, elected to the party this time last year, may have been aware that migrant employees of her husband’s e-bike business had complained they hadn’t been paid.
A chaotic period followed, involving an independent investigation, a war of words, internal ruptures and a legal battle.
It came to a head last night with Green Party delegates finally meeting to vote on whether to enact the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act.
The Greens wanted at least 75% agreement to use the party-hopping provision, but needed only two thirds by law.
After reaching the required numbers in a vote, it then had to inform the Speaker they reasonably believed that Tana had acted in a way that had distorted and is likely to continue to distort, the proportionality of representation in Parliament. That statement to the speaker essentially forces Tana from the seat.
In July, Green Party co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama 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, the first step in the party’s attempt to oust her from Parliament. Tana was given 21 days to respond - when she did, in August, she reiterated she would not be resigning.
The party originally scheduled a special meeting on September 1 for delegates to vote on whether or not the party-hopping provisions should be enacted. That plan was brought to a halt after Tana filed legal proceedings.
Then, later in September, the High Court threw out Tana’s claim that the Green Party acted unlawfully in launching disciplinary action. Last week, Tana appealed that ruling.
Tana on Wednesday night reiterated 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.”
Electoral law expert Andrew Geddis said if Tana was expelled it would mark the first time a party has ousted an MP from Parliament since the laws were updated in 2018.
The Green Party would likely bring in next on the list, Benjamin Doyle, once the seat is declared vacant.