'She is not a leader that I would follow'

Darleen Tana has expressed her desire to move on from her battle with the Greens, following a High Court ruling that has cleared the way for the party to use the waka jumping legislation to evict her from Parliament.

Tana resigned from the party in July following allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband’s business.

Despite resigning and being suspended from the party, Tana took the Greens to court as an attempt to remain in Parliament as an independent MP.

Speaking on Pacific Mornings, she criticised the party’s leadership and its failure to uphold cultural values.

“I think where it's always stood for myself, which is to find a way to hohou te rongo, to make the peace between peoples.

“Going through a judicial review may have seemed a bit of a strange way to do that, but it was important when I saw the impact, the cancel culture behaviour that was happening to Green Party supporters who were supporting me.”

Watch Tana's full interview on Pacific Mornings here

Following her resignation from the party, three senior members of the Pasifika Greens resigned over the treatment towards Tana and citing the space as culturally unsafe.

Tana said there’s an element of truth to the concerns over cultural safety but claims there’s a distinction when it comes to the membership level and Parliamentary/leadership space.

“Things change when you go into Parliament and that is where we see really the reversion to coloniser behaviour and there it is culturally unsafe.

“The membership is something else. There people live by those values and they are on a learning journey. But it's clear that we need to do more.

“If we say we're going to be non-violent, uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi at a political level, then we need to start doing that.”

Tana also criticised the party’s leadership stating that it failed to follow tikanga, its inability to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its history of slamming Wahine Maori.

“For myself personally, she [Swarbrick] is an incredible person but that's not a leader that I will ever follow going forward.

“My leader is somebody who upholds the mana, the mauri and the tapu of everyone and everything around them and that has not been demonstrated with me.”

Just a few hours after Tana’s interview on Pacific Mornings, the Greens released a statement that the party has rescheduled their Special General Meeting following the High Court’s ruling.

Speaking to the media, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the meeting, which was initially set for September 1, will discuss the potential use of provisions in the Electoral act or known as the party-hopping law in Tana’s case.

“This afternoon the party has sent notice to our branches across the country to allow planning for meetings to discuss the issue and finalise delegates.

“Any use of the legislation will require consensus, or at least 75 per cent support from delegates. We will honour our grassroots members’ decision at this SGM.”

Greens Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick spoke to media today following High Court ruling. Photo/ OneNews

Firing back at Tana’s accusations, Swarbrick emphasised the situation as a matter of legal process and party accountability.

“What the report did show very clearly is that there were instances which Darlene Tana did not, and was not, transparent, upfront, or truthful with co-leaders or with the broader caucus.”

When asked about whether or not the party is culturally unsafe for Māori and Pacific, Swarbrick acknowledged the need for cultural competence but distanced the party from using cultural practices as an excuse for misconduct.

“Those obviously come from a place of upset and from people's personal experiences and also from grief, notably, too.

“So we take time to sit with those things and to kōrero and to work through what people want to see and how we best progress as a party, but that's always going to be a process.

“It’s work that our party and all parties in this place need to do, to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It’s an ongoing journey for us and we’ll continue to be held accountable.”

When asked for a response on Tana’s attack on her ability as the party’s co-leader, Swarbrick fired back saying it’s not the first time she’s been attacked.

“I do take criticism seriously when I hear them from people.

“I take time to sit with them and reflect on my character. After seven years in this place, and this is now my third term, absolutely everything that you do will entail people having opinions on those things.

“Everything that we have said has been from a factual basis. We came to the conclusions as a caucus through consensus that Darlene Tana was not fit to be an MP. That’s not a personal statement, it’s a factual one.”

Tana is an environmental scientist with a Bachelor of Chemical Technology from Massey University. She worked in an environmental science role at Horizons Regional Council early on in her career. Photo/ Green Party NZ

For now, Tana’s career as an MP remains on the line, something she’s not too bothered about.

“I never got into politics to become a career politician. I went in for the kaupapa … so I'm not phased about that at all. So yeah, oh darn, go back to my kumara patch.”