The rookie MP has resigned from the Greens, but hasn’t clarified if she’ll leave parliament too, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this edition of The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

A drawn out demise for a new MP

The Greens have confirmed that one of its newest MPs has resigned under a cloud of suspicion, adding to an already difficult year for the party. Darleen Tana was only elected last year, but was suspended in mid-March after allegations of migrant exploitation first reported by Stuff’s Steve Kilgallon. If you don’t know much about Tana, that’s no surprise – she has spent more time on forced leave than as an MP during her time in politics: 116 days. Her name is now inextricably linked with a lengthy investigation and the taxpayer-funded pay packet she has been pocketing for the past four months while away from work. As pollster David Farrar wryly noted on Twitter, Tana’s time of absence has been longer than the Falklands War (74 days). The report into Tana’s alleged behaviour was released to the party co-leaders last Friday night, but has yet to be made public. However, reported Stuff, it’s believed to back up the damning claims raised in the media regarding Tana’s knowledge of allegations made against her husband and the operation of his Auckland bike shop.

How is Darleen Tana still an MP?

That means that – at least for now – Tana remains an MP, just one without a caucus. “Please resign,” said co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick yesterday, admitting she had not been able to reach Tana ahead of an extraordinary press conference at parliament. “It is our very strong view that she misled myself and Marama [Davidson].” Later, on RNZ’s Checkpoint, Swarbrick went further: “if we can be straight up about it, it is our strong view that she lied to us”.

The Greens have been here before, most recently when Elizabeth Kerekere resigned over bullying claims in 2023. In that situation, Kerekere stayed on as an independent MP until the election. That’s because the Greens chose not to invoke the “party-hopping” law – the rule that allows party leaders to expel MPs from parliament if they leave the party during a term of parliament. Chris Hipkins also had the option to boot Meka Whaitiri from parliament when she announced her planned defection to Te Pāti Māori, as Toby Manhire reported for The Spinoff at the time, but again opted against this.

An added complication

Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis, writing this morning on The Spinoff, explains that despite being an option on the table, it’s incredibly unlikely to be used. Instead, parties tend to leave misbehaving MPs to languish in political Siberia at the back of the debating chamber. There’s an added complication for the Greens. While Swarbrick’s comments yesterday suggest the report into Tana’s alleged behaviour is very serious, the party has a long history of vocally opposing the party hopping rule. Former Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons explained why on The Spinoff back in 2018, at the same time her ex-party was begrudgingly supporting it through parliament while in government with Labour. It would, as Politik’s Richard Harman (paywalled) argues, be highly hypocritical for the Greens to choose to invoke the law now – though Swarbrick said the party hadn’t yet discussed using it. Nobody likes being called a hypocrite, especially not members of parliament.

Strong words for serious allegations

Te Ao Māori News has a timeline of the Tana scandal, notable for its brevity: there were two complaints against the business owned by Tana’s husband in February and March, and then everything else has taken place behind closed doors until this week. Throughout this process, the Green Party co-leaders have expressed frustration at the time taken to investigate the claims, but also maintained that natural justice was critical. But yesterday, Swarbrick expressed upset at the findings of the report. “I am finding it really hard to reconcile somebody I thought I knew and loved with the behaviour that is outlined in this report,” she told reporters. “Darleen’s actions are completely at odds with our party’s values, policies and kaupapa.”

There are unanswered questions, reports Newsroom’s Marc Daalder, some of which may be clarified when the report (or parts of it) is released in the future. The workers at the centre of the claims are, reports RNZ’s Soumya Bhamidipati, focused on getting owed wages rather than on whether Tana leaves parliament.

For the Greens, this latest departure caps what has been a rocky few months. The Tana claims followed the Golriz Ghahraman shoplifting scandal and the bullying allegations against Kerekere last year. Then, in May, Julie Anne Genter faced complaints over “threatening behaviour” against National’s Matt Doocey in parliament. James Shaw, the long-serving and steady co-leader, also opted to leave parliament this year (though this was widely predicted and not linked to any scandal). You may expect the cumulative impact of these incidents to dent the Greens’ reputation, but the polls tell a different story. As Newsroom’s Laura Walters observes, the party is steady at around 13 or 14%, while Swarbrick routinely crops up as a preferred prime minister.