Speaker 1: Kielda. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is a bonus episode
Speaker 1: of the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the
Speaker 1: New Zealand Herald. Green MP Darlene Tana has spent half
Speaker 1: of her short parliamentary career under investigation after allegations she's
Speaker 1: linked to migrant exploitation at her husband's bicycle company. A
Speaker 1: report on the lengthy investigation was delivered to the Green
Speaker 1: Party on Friday night, and the party is now called
Speaker 1: on Tana to resign. To explain what's happening and why
Speaker 1: the Greens aren't firing Tana themselves. We're joined now on
Speaker 1: the Front Page by Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls. Jason,
Speaker 1: can you give us the cliff notes version of who
Speaker 1: Darlene Tana is and what she was accused of doing?
Speaker 2: The cliff note versions of who she is? I couldn't
Speaker 2: do that because she was not very well known before
Speaker 2: she entered parliament. In fact, her rise to prominence came
Speaker 2: exclusively because of these allegations of migrant exploitation at her
Speaker 2: husband's e bike company. And since then it's been as
Speaker 2: of recording, one hundred and fifteen days. It has been
Speaker 2: a long drawn out process as we tried to determine
Speaker 2: who is this person and what has she or hasn't
Speaker 2: she done, And the release of the Green Party's statement
Speaker 2: sheds very little light into either of those questions.
Speaker 1: Well, the Greens finally got that report on Tana on
Speaker 1: Friday night. Hey, they held a caucus meeting over the
Speaker 1: weekend with China involved. Now they've asked her to resign
Speaker 1: from parliament. What do you make of this process?
Speaker 2: It's a process that somewhat ironically, the Greens have found
Speaker 2: themselves in before with Elizabeth Ketty Kenny. I mean, they're
Speaker 2: vehemently against the Walker jumping legislation, which would have meant
Speaker 2: that she would have been a lot easier to dispatch. However,
Speaker 2: since they were very against that, couldn't exactly use it
Speaker 2: on their own MPs once, certainly not twice. So it
Speaker 2: means that the caucus and the Green Party leadership has
Speaker 2: asked her to resign from the Green Party, which she has.
Speaker 2: But the question lingering at this stage is will she
Speaker 2: resign from parliament. At this stage, technically she's counted as
Speaker 2: an independent MP, just like Elizabeth Ketty Ketty was, just
Speaker 2: like Jamie Lee Ross was just like good av Chardamau was.
Speaker 2: So it's not exactly a stacked roster of people that
Speaker 2: you want to compare yourself with. And so she's in
Speaker 2: political limbo at this stage while we figure out is
Speaker 2: she going to stay or is she going to go?
Speaker 1: Do you find it astonishing that an MP can spend
Speaker 1: half their parliamentary career under investigation and still be on
Speaker 1: full pay.
Speaker 2: Well, yes and no. I agreed from the outset with
Speaker 2: the Green Party that there had to be some elements
Speaker 2: of natural justice. You are innocent until proven guilty, so
Speaker 2: requiring you to leave parliament and stopping your pay would
Speaker 2: have been a step too far. But one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifteen days granted, half of it, maybe about forty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars of it, was paid by tax payers. The rest
Speaker 2: was paid for by the Green Party itself. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a terrible look for the party. Although it was
Speaker 2: following what it said was due process, it sounded like
Speaker 2: there was a lot of legal back and forth that
Speaker 2: happened behind the scenes, which again we don't know yet
Speaker 2: because we don't have the report.
Speaker 1: The Greens aren't going to force Tanner to quit themselves
Speaker 1: and they won't invoke the so called walker jumping legislation
Speaker 1: you mentioned before to sack. MP's former Greens co leader
Speaker 1: James Shaw called such a process draconian and anti democratic.
Speaker 1: Does that hold up considering Tana only came in on
Speaker 1: the list of a party that doesn't want her anymore.
Speaker 2: Well, you've got to consider the counterfactual of what the
Speaker 2: democracy in the situation is. I mean, Tana is not
Speaker 2: the face of the Green Party. Very few people went
Speaker 2: to the polls and said I'm voting for the Greens
Speaker 2: because I want Darlien Tana to be an MP. Therefore,
Speaker 2: she hasn't got the right to say that she is
Speaker 2: here represented by the people if she stays on as
Speaker 2: a Green MP. She stood as an independent MP. Rather,
Speaker 2: she stood in the Auckland Central Marty seat of Palmakee
Speaker 2: Mikado and lost that seat quite significantly. It was a
Speaker 2: battle between Tipati Marti's candidate and Pinie Hennare from the
Speaker 2: Labor Party. She didn't have a showing, So there is
Speaker 2: no way that you can argue it's democratic that she's
Speaker 2: there being an independent. She has less right to be
Speaker 2: there than anybody else that came third on the voting
Speaker 2: block of any other place. Across the country. It's just
Speaker 2: the Greens seemed to be consistently shooting themselves in both
Speaker 2: feet when it comes to this walker jumping legislation. They
Speaker 2: were the biggest opponents of it, but now it's come
Speaker 2: to bite them a couple of times. Now they'll be
Speaker 2: considering their options. And I wonder if James Shaw sticks
Speaker 2: by those comments or whether he doesn't care because he
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be involved anymore.
Speaker 1: You and Thomas Coglin on on the Tiles podcast said,
Speaker 1: Chloe Swarbrick is basically the only Green MP really performing
Speaker 1: well at the moment. Is she handling this case quite well?
Speaker 2: Do you think she came out quite strong in that
Speaker 2: press conference. I mean, she was hamstrung about what she
Speaker 2: could and couldn't say in the which is extremely disappointing.
Speaker 2: But what she had to do was make us read
Speaker 2: between the lines, which she did. She said things like
Speaker 2: it is crystal clear that her conduct didn't meet the threshold.
Speaker 2: She said it fell very, very far short, and that
Speaker 2: she was extremely disappointed in the actions of Darlian Tanna.
Speaker 3: Protecting our planet and caring for our people, our core
Speaker 3: to who we are and as co leaders Martima and
Speaker 3: I have clear expectations that our MP's are guided by
Speaker 3: those values. This is why, following the conclusion of the
Speaker 3: expert independent investigation into the allegations surrounding Darlene Tana, Martima
Speaker 3: and I recommended to Caucus that we request her resignation
Speaker 3: as a Member of Parliament.
Speaker 2: So all we can do is put together the pieces
Speaker 2: and say her husband was accused of migrant exploitations and
Speaker 2: allegations that he's denied. The probe about a Tana was
Speaker 2: to understand her level of involvement or even knowledge, and
Speaker 2: so looking at what the co leader has said on
Speaker 2: balance without seeing the report, they must have found something
Speaker 2: that was extremely improper for them to have this sort
Speaker 2: of reaction.
Speaker 1: What does this mean for the Greens on a whole.
Speaker 1: They've had a rough year of it for multiple reasons.
Speaker 1: Once Tana's gone, will they be able to finally move on.
Speaker 2: It's going to be tough for them to move on
Speaker 2: from this because it's not the first scandal of the year.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, they had the Goldways Guaman scandal
Speaker 2: as well, that is still hanging over them as that
Speaker 2: has played out in court. I mean, obviously different kettle
Speaker 2: of fish, but the official Collins tragic death as well,
Speaker 2: doesn't I mean it's really done a knock on caucus morale.
Speaker 2: So this will be exactly what the Greens won't want.
Speaker 2: They'll want to be holding the government to account on
Speaker 2: a number of things. In Chloe Swarbrick is quickly learning
Speaker 2: that being a party leader isn't all smiles, handshakes and
Speaker 2: kissing babies. It's a lot of putting up fires and
Speaker 2: she's had to be a firefight of a forest fire
Speaker 2: that she never envisaged.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Jason. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of the Front Page. You can read more about today's
Speaker 1: stories and extensive news coverage at enzet Herald dot co
Speaker 1: dot z. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles
Speaker 1: with sound engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to
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Speaker 1: and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.