Tana digs in as Greens mull action
Te Pā ti Mā ori bosses refuse to rule out taking former Green MP into their party
The Green Party will consider this weekend whether to try to force former Green MP Darleen Tana out of Parliament after she rejected co-leader Chlo¨e Swarbrick’s request to resign and confirmed she would stay in Parliament as an independent MP.
Tana returned to Parliament yesterday and was declared an independent MP by Speaker Gerry Brownlee. She later told media she intended to stay on.
“I’m here now and doing the mahi . . . as long as this place allows me.”
As she finished speaking to reporters, Tana said she needed to get back to the House because she was the “only person there and I don’t have anybody backing me up”.
While the Green Party will decide at its annual conference this weekend whether to invoke the waka-jumping law to kick Tana out of Parliament, Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have not ruled out taking Tana into their party if she wants to join.
Swarbrick, who had publicly urged Tana to resign as an MP after a report on alleged migrant exploitation at Tana’s husband’s business, said yesterday afternoon she had only heard through the media that Tana intended to stay on.
“Our caucus and party will be taking next steps with this in mind and will have more to say in due course.”
If the Greens did use the wakajumping law, Swarbrick said it would not be without the sign-off of the wider party.
Swarbrick said a number of party members had expressed frustration about the situation.
She said the best option would have been for Tana to resign.
Swarbrick said if the party was “in a situation where we have to explore other options, then we will have those sensitive conversations at our AGM this coming weekend”.
“I can be pretty clear with you that there are a number of members across the country who have reached out to me, incredibly frustrated about the situation and about Darlene Tana’s unwillingness to take responsibility for what’s happened here.”
Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer said they had not yet had any discussions with Tana about joining Te Pā ti Mā ori.
Asked if they would take Tana if she asked, Ngarewa-Packer said that was “a discussion that needs to still happen”.
“We never leave Māori behind. We’ve always been open about that. It’s a treacherous place.”
When spoken to by the Herald yesterday, Ngarewa-Packer said they had just seen Tana for the first time that day “and mihi to her because there was a camera in her face the whole time. We know what it’s like to be unwanted in that place so we acknowledged her in that place”.
Tana is now seated at the back of Parliament’s debating chamber — the area is dubbed “Siberia” — and her office has been moved out of the Greens’ wing to the Parliamentary Library.
She was suspended in March after allegations of migrant exploitation involving her husband Christian HoffNielsen’s bicycle company.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said the Green Party was reluctant to use the waka-jumping law because it had originally got into Parliament by jumping ship from the Alliance to form the Greens, “so they are caught by their past”.
He said there was no justification for an MP to remain in such circumstances, but also noted the bike business of Tana’s husband was now in liquidation.
He asked what was going on with the Greens’ selection processes: “You’ve got chaos going on here.”