The Greens draw a long line under the Tana saga
The dead rat has been swallowed with unanimous support to use the party-hopping rule.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, October 18.
In today’s edition: Tory Whanau met with local government minister Simeon Brown at parliament yesterday, the Electoral Commission has issued warnings to several political parties over donations, and an ad by Hobsons Pledge published in the Herald has been deemed “misleading”. But first, the Greens draw a long line under the Tana Saga.
Tana’s time in parliament to end
Green Party delegates have voted to invoke the party-hopping rule against one of its former MPs with the intention of booting them out of parliament. Darleen Tana was elected as a Green list MP at last year’s election, though has spent about as much time out of parliament as she has in it. In March this year, a Stuff investigation by Steve Kilgallon revealed allegations of migrant exploitation against a business owned by Tana’s husband. Tana was stood down by her party and a lengthy independent investigation ultimately concluded that Tana herself was likely to have had knowledge of the claims levelled against her partner’s business. She has continued to deny this, and told Stuff’s Glenn McConnell she was devastated at the possibility of having to leave parliament. “I have done nothing wrong,” she said yesterday.
After choosing to quit the Greens after the investigation was made public, Tana has remained in parliament as an independent despite repeated urges from Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick to leave. That decision has now been made for her.
Swallowing the dead rat
The Greens met for a couple of hours last night over Zoom where the motion to try and oust Tana was backed unanimously. Those on the call included former co-leader Metiria Turei. “It’s massive,” Newstalk ZB’s political editor Jason Walls told Ryan Bridge earlier this morning. “[Turei] has been basically absent from the political landscape… Even Chlöe Swarbrick said she had no idea she would be making this contribution to the call.”
Speaking at parliament last night, Swarbrick told reporters she felt “comfortable” with how the party had gone about deciding to oust Tana. “We have done our best to act in a principled manner and to weigh everything up and come to the conclusion that we have,” she said, reported Stuff. She urged Tana, one last time, resign.
Were Tana to resign of her own accord, that would save the Greens from having to swallow a so-called “dead rat” given the party’s vocal opposition to the party-hopping rule in the past, as The Post’s Thomas Manch looked at in July. Deputy prime minister Winston Peters was quick to jump to that conclusion, posting on Twitter moments after last night’s Green meeting concluded that the party was “virtue signalling”.
On Newstalk ZB moments ago, Swarbrick told Mike Hosking she acknowledged the party’s historic opposition to the party-hopping law, but said she was “the first to admit” that people can change their minds when new evidence or complex situations are encountered.
What happens next?
In a substantive explainer of the whole Tana-Greens shemozzle published yesterday, my colleague Alice Neville explained that when exactly the independent MP has to leave parliament is at the discretion of house speaker, Gerry Brownlee. Once she has gone, the Greens will get a new MP – Benjamin Doyle, who is next on the list and has been waiting in limbo throughout this whole process. Swarbrick said she was confident that the threshold to use the party-hopping rule had been met and that Tana’s presence in parliament but not in the Green Party had “affected the proportionality of the House”.
One potential spanner is that Tana has opted to fight to the bitter end, relaunching a legal bid in the Court of Appeal earlier this week. Otago University’s Andrew Geddis told The Bulletin that even in the very unlikely scenario that Tana’s appeal was successful, it wouldn’t mean she could stay in parliament. “The two things are on different tracks. Tana's appeal does not affect the Greens ability to use the party hopping law against her because she hasn't asked for an injunction to stop them doing so while it is being heard,” Geddis explained.
“Once the Greens trigger the party hopping provisions (as they lawfully can do) and the speaker declares her seat vacant, then she is no longer an MP and the next on the Greens list comes into parliament. That is then the end of that, in terms of her seat.” Should the appeals court side with Tana, that could – at most – result in a finding that the Greens had acted unlawfully in how they treated her prior to her resignation from the party. “Such a finding obviously would be deeply embarrassing for the Greens. But it wouldn't affect the issue of who gets to be an MP,” said Geddis.
Drawing a line under a rocky year
It’s welcome news for the Greens to have the Tana saga in the rearview mirror. It’s been rocky year for the Greens, though largely for reasons out of their control. Along with the claims levelled against Tana, former MP Golriz Ghahraman resigned from parliament over claims of shoplifting she later admitted to. Ghahraman is appealing that conviction at the moment. The party also lost co-leader James Shaw, who opted to leave parliament rather than spend a term in opposition, while Marama Davidson was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been on leave.
In his piece assessing the “losers” from this week’s TVNZ Verian poll, The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire noted that while the Greens have largely avoided a calamitous drop in support, they could be doing better.
The government is unabashedly cutting taxes and public sector jobs, embracing roads, oil and gas, targeting blind frogs called Freddy and flirting with culture wars. It’s hard to imagine a more fertile territory for the Greens, especially when you chuck a pedestrian Labour Party into the mix. In co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick the Greens have one of the country’s most effective communicators; they might be faring better if she weren’t communicating mostly about Darleen Tana.
On The Spinoff’s politics podcast Gone by Lunchtime, co-host Annabelle Lee-Mather believed part of that was down to Labour’s poor performance in opposition. “It’s remarkable to see the Greens have gone up despite the absolute shit show of a year that they’ve had – and I think that’s a testament to Chlöe’s leadership,” she said.
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No word on whether government will step in at Wellington Council
Wellington’s mayor will have to wait a few more days to learn whether the government intends to step in to try and right the ship. Tory Whanau met with local government minister Simeon Brown at parliament yesterday. As The Post’s Tom Hunt reports, Whanau has pledged to form a revised long-term plan before the end of the year (though one councillor clarified the intention was actually to deliver a draft amended plan this side of Christmas, with consultation running alongside next year’s annual plan process). Whanau claimed that intervention was not raised during her meeting with the minister, though commentators tend to agree that a Crown observer (as opposed to a snap election or bringing in commissioners) is the most likely course of action should the government choose to act.
Meanwhile, writing for The Spinoff this morning, Joel MacManus has taken a look at what he argues is the biggest issue damaging Wellington’s image: car lanes. Yes, you read that right.
The pro-car zealots at the city council insist on ramming car lanes through the city even though no one in my limited social circle supports them. I personally do not drive a car to work, and therefore I cannot comprehend how a car lane might be useful for someone else.
Listen: The hidden battery in your home
What if your hot water cylinder could help solve New Zealand’s energy crisis? And how is an hour of free electricity helping with our notoriously problematic electricity market? Electric Kiwi co-founder and CEO Huia Burt sits down with Bernard Hickey to explore how they are helping New Zealanders tackle the cost-of-living crisis, all while reducing our national reliance on non-renewable energy sources. A fascinating discussion about electricity, innovation, and the potential for real change.
Next week: Our most ambitious pop culture project ever
For over a decade, The Spinoff has been passionate about local television. Next week we launch our most ambitious project yet: a definitive list and ranking of the Top 100 New Zealand television shows of the 21st century.
A panel of seasoned critics and our in-house couch potatoes have made their calls. The countdown to number one starts Monday, October 21.
Subscribe to Rec Room now to get the rankings delivered directly to you as soon as they're live each day.
Click and Collect
The Electoral Commission has issued warnings to several political parties, including National and Labour, about large donations being declared months after they should have been.
KiwiRail is offering voluntary redundancy to all staff from next week.
Two leading figures in New Zealand’s Covid-19 response have voiced worries the country could again be caught unprepared by the next pandemic.
I’ve been appreciating Todd Niall’s analysis of the America’s Cup given it is being broadcast far too early for me to tune in. In his latest column, he compares this year’s competition with the 2013 San Francisco regatta we all try to forget.
Parliament’s inquiry into banking competition and profitability kicks off next week.
An ad by Hobsons Pledge published in the Herald has been deemed “misleading” and in breach of the Advertising Standards Code.
One Direction star Liam Payne passed away yesterday at the age of 31. Shit You Should Care About’s Lucy Blakiston writes on how to grieve the singer.
Barilla v Barilla, Sportify vs Spotify – Lyric Waiwiri-Smith reports on big trademark wins for local businesses. Anna Rawhiti-Connell has some breaking news revealing that, yes, things cost money. Celebrity Treasure Island winner JP Foliaki tells Tara Ward how it felt to reach the treasure. Alex Casey talks to the stars of The Office AU about how it felt to gender-flip the franchise. Deer hunter Mike Fagan ranks the seven kinds of deer in New Zealand. Hera Lindsay Bird advises a reader who wants to be the girl everyone hates.
That’s it for another week, thanks for reading. Catch you back on Monday morning, have a great weekend!
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Fa’anānā Efeso Collins also died suddenly - I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned as of something out of the control of the Greens.
🙋People I hope to stop hearing about due to their hubris & unfitness to hold public office definitely include Darleen Tana 🤬 She could have taken the high ground ("I've done nothing wrong, but for the good of the party I will stand down, clear my name, and put myself forward in a future election when that is done") but these days it seems the "me! Me! Me!" brigade seem dominant 🤷
And yeah - the "opposition" seems to have been quiet due to media not reporting them 😱 I have read & heard plenty of opposition MPs in independent media, making sense & debunking the current coalition in their lies & misrepresentations. Also just talking changes nothing - getting policies fleshed out ready for when media WILL cover them leading up to the election is essential as well 🧐