The Week In Politics: Will The Greens Use The Law They Hate?

Saturday, 13 July 2024, 3:42 pm
Article: RNZ

Peter Wilson, Political commentator

Greens face a difficult decision after getting rid of Darleen Tana - should they now force her out of Parliament? Prime Minister Christopher Luxon mixes with the mighty at the NATO summit in Washington and leaked documents reveal why the Aratere ran aground.

Analysis - When the Greens' co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said she felt "utterly betrayed" by Darleen Tana, and questioned the MP's fitness to be in Parliament, she put her party in a difficult position.

If the Greens believe Tana isn't fit to be there the party should force her to leave, and it can.

If it doesn't, Tana can choose to stay as an independent until the next election.

The Greens can use the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act, usually known as the waka-jumping law, to get rid of her.

The party's problem is that they have always strongly opposed the waka-jumping law. They believe it's wrong, and have described it in the most scathing terms.

This situation has come about because of allegations of migrant exploitation involving Tana's husband's electric bike business and what the MP did or didn't know about them.

The party hired a lawyer to investigate, which took months, and this week Swarbrick announced the party's caucus had unanimously demanded Tana's resignation.

Tana resigned from the party. Swarbrick appealed to her to "do the right thing" and resign from Parliament as well.

RNZ has seen the full executive summary of barrister Rachel Burt's report into what Tana knew about the allegations of unpaid wages and visa breaches at her husband's business, what she did about them and what steps she took to inform the Greens.

"Tana 'likely knew' about the allegations of worker exploitation at her husband's business and did not disclose them to the Green Party, an investigation has found," RNZ's report said.

It deals at length with the difficulties Burt had in obtaining accurate information.

Tana has challenged the report, saying it misrepresented what she knew about the allegations.

"The report does not say that migrant exploitation has occurred, let alone that I am responsible for it in any capacity," she said.

That doesn't sound like she's going to "do the right thing" and resign from Parliament. She could continue to dispute the findings of the investigation until the next election.

The Herald's Thomas Coughlan considered her situation.

"Political observers often miscalculate the importance of money in these decisions," he said.

"For many, being an MP means reaching the peak of their earning potential - and for an unlucky few, leaving Parliament often means taking a hefty pay cut.

"Tana may choose to stick around simply because it is a good way to earn $170,000 a year while her husband sorts out his beleaguered bike shop."

That is where the situation rests: Tana has to decide what she wants to do, and the Greens have to decide whether to invoke the waka-jumping law and force her out.

The party is entitled to. At the last election voters gave the Greens 15 MPs to fight for their causes, and now they have 14.

Tana could stay and pledge she would continue to vote for the Greens but that wouldn't help her.

As legal expert Professor Andrew Geddis told the Herald: "The Supreme Court said that proportionality of Parliament is distorted not on the basis of how votes are cast, but on the numbers of MPs that a party has.

"The Greens have told the Speaker she (Tana) is not one of ours. That automatically means the Greens have one less MP than they had. That means the proportionality of Parliament has automatically been distorted, and there are grounds for using the party-hopping law if the Greens want to."

Geddis didn't think the Greens would use it.

"After having jumped up and down and said what a dead rat or constitutional outrage it was, and then voting (in 2020) to repeal it… there's no way the Greens could use it," he said.

Swarbrick hasn't ruled out using it.

She told Morning Report the Greens were strongly opposed to its existence so it required "a sensitive and informed discussion at our caucus and within our party".

Good for her if she can keep it at the "sensitive and informed" level - it could turn into a blazing row.

Political analyst Bryce Edwards didn't have much sympathy for the Greens, saying it was trying to paint a picture in which it was the victim.

"This is a scandal of the Green Party's own making," he said in an article published by the Herald.

"From the recruitment of Darleen Tana to the dilemma of invoking the waka-jumping rules, the Greens have made their bed and now need to sleep in it."

Edwards said party management of the situation had been woeful and it had set in motion a "farcical process" that now seemed hard to bring to a conclusion.

He said the party first secretly suspended Tana from her small business portfolio, hoping the issue would go away.

It admitted there was a problem after Stuff exposed a former worker's claims about the cycle business, fully suspended her, and hired Burt to investigate.

"The party treated this inquiry as an entirely private one, refusing to provide the public with details of the terms of reference or any real idea of the process that would be followed," he said.

"The Greens have spent the last four months refusing to answer questions… and fobbing off concerns about why it took so long to conclude."

Edwards said there was clear public interest and the integrity of Parliament was involved.

At least $43,000 of taxpayer money was used to pay for the report. "It's not a private document. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters rightly says 'the taxpayer has paid for it and they should be seeing it'."

Edwards, like Geddis, found it "astonishing" that Swarbrick was countenancing using the waka-jumping law, having denounced it as anti-democratic and constitutionally outrageous.

NZ First leader and Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters told Newstalk ZB the scandal was a disgrace and the Greens should invoke the law.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Peters said: "If the Greens believe that Darleen Tana's actions are bad enough to be kicked out of their party and falls 'far, far short' of the standards of a Member of Parliament, they must invoke the waka-jumping law and have her removed from Parliament altogether."

If the Greens believe that Darleen Tana’s actions are bad enough to be kicked out of their party and falls ‘far, far short’ of the standards of a Member of Parliament, they must invoke the Waka Jumping law and have her removed from parliament altogether.

They can’t say one…

— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) July 8, 2024

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Tana should resign from Parliament.

"She doesn't have a mandate to be an independent MP, she was elected as a Green MP. She no longer is, so she should go," he told Morning Report.

Hipkins thought using the waka-jumping law to get her out would be "an appropriate course of action".

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was a matter for the Green Party.

He had other things to think about, as he was in Washington for the NATO summit.

Luxon arrived ahead of the opening and Herald political editor Claire Trevett described his first day.

"He bounced around Capitol Hill meeting an array of Senators and members of Congress, beaming and gripping hands and upper arms with his CEO handshake," she said.

"He pronounced everything was 'awesome' as he went…even the 38c heat could not suppress him on his mission to win over hearts and minds."

There were 32 world leaders in town and Luxon attended a White House dinner with them hosted by US President Joe Biden.

Luxon met Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, RNZ's political editor Jo Moir reported.

The NATO leaders were then joined by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, invited to update them on Russia's invasion.

New Zealand is not a member of NATO, it is a partner country along with Australia, Japan and South Korea.

They are known as the Indo-Pacific Four (IP4) and following the dinner Luxon chaired an IP4 meeting.

The Aratere grounding

Back home Winston Peters was in charge and getting mixed up in the latest edition of the Aratere saga.

It began with a post on NZ First's X account: "Is it true that the Aratere ran aground when someone put the autopilot on, went for a coffee, and then couldn't turn the autopilot off in time when that someone came back? If so why haven't the public been told that?"

Is it true that the Aratere ran aground when someone put the autopilot on, went for a coffee, and then couldn’t turn the autopilot off in time when that someone came back…?

If so, why haven’t the public been told that?

— New Zealand First (@nzfirst) July 9, 2024

Peters didn't put the post up himself and after it appeared he said he was going to find out more about the grounding.

KiwiRail's response was to say "the regulated number of people" were on the ferry's bridge at the time of the grounding, while Maritime New Zealand cautioned about "conjecture" while official investigations were underway.

When those responses were put to Peters, he replied: "Crikey, that's not a denial… why would you need an inquiry four weeks later into something as simple as that?"

Then the leaks began.

"Leaked documents about the Cook Strait ferry grounding show a crew member accidentally triggered the autopilot into the wrong course before it crashed into the shore," RNZ reported.

The documents showed that after the Aratere left Picton it had been switched from hand steering to autopilot.

A staff member then "inadvertently" pressed a button which caused the autopilot to change direction sooner than it should have.

The crew noticed the turn but were initially unable to get back control of the ferry. By the time hand steering and reverse propulsion could be engaged it was too late to stop the ship running aground.

The RNZ report said the leaked document had been shared with staff late last week as a safety briefing intended to provide guidance and raise awareness of good practice.

Stuff's Tom Hunt delved deeper and reported sources had confirmed the investigation would, in part, look into claims nobody in the bridge crew knew that to override the new autopilot a button had to be held down for five seconds.

Interislander's executive general manager, Duncan Roy, said a fair and thorough investigation was crucial.

"It is important that we understand all of the factors involved in the incident, including the underlying causes," he said.

Peters was asked on Morning Report if he thought there was a cover-up at Interislander operator KiwiRail, and he said he knew there was.

"I am the acting prime minister, and the reality is that we are wanting to hear the truth, but we don't want to delay any longer," he said.

"And in a way you can say I'm asking KiwiRail (to) front up - right here, right now."

Roy rejected that, saying there there was "absolutely no cover-up".

*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA's political editor and seven as parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire

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