Parliament is a toxic workplace for women, wāhine Māori and women of colour - former MP

Former Cabinet minister Sandra Lee-Vercoe says there needs to be major changes to Parliament’s culture.

While not commenting directly on Darleen Tana’s resignation from the Greens, Lee-Vercoe says the New Zealand Parliament is known as a hostile work environment.

She says it’s even harder for women, Māori women and women of colour.

During her time there, 1993-2002, Lee-Vercoe said she had stalkers, people breaking into her home, death threats and even had an HIV-positive person who flew to Wellington twice with the express intention of biting her.

“It’s very difficult to deal with nutters in the public who are coming after you on the basis of your gender or your race but what could be changed and must be changed is the way people behave within the House and towards each other,” she told WaateaNews.Com

Clash of the generations: Winston Peters attacks Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke and she returns the favour with a response that has turned into a Tiktok meme. Image / Whakaata Māori

And it appears nothing has changed in the debating chamber either, Lee-Veroce said, referring to the incident where Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told Te Pāti Maori’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke to shut up and respect her elders.

Lee-Vercoe said that was just one example of “unacceptable behaviour by bully boys” and the only people Maipi-Clarke needed to answer to are the people of Hauraki-Waikato who elected her their MP.

Meanwhile Former Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere says Tana’s forced departure indicates the Greens have systemic problems with wahine Māori.

The Greens are now locked in a stalemate with Tana, who resigned from the party on Saturday after the caucus took her to task over an independent report on whether she had been frank about her level of involvement in her husband’s e-bike business, which is facing allegations of migrant exploitation.

She’s resisting calls to also quit parliament.

The party was also divided over its handling of former co-leader Metiria Turei, whose revelation of youthful benefit fraud almost sunk its chances in the 2017 election.

Kerekere, who sat as an independent for 6 months after quitting the party over allegations of bullying, says there are similarities and differences between her situation and Ms Tana.

“Whether Māori women MPs are safe in the Green Party can be seen by what has happened to three Māori women MPs in the Green Party and I hope this gets resolved soon and the mana of our Māori women doesn’t keep coming under attack in this way,” she says.

Adam Gifford & Peter Verschaffelt, WaateaNews.Com