Brave jewellery store worker fends off robbers with a sword, investigations into the Interislander’s Aratere get under way and more police hit the Auckland beat.
The Green Party said it had referred the issue to the Electoral Commission in May. It followed revelations in May that Tana was allegedly linked to claims of migrant exploitation at her husband’s business. An independent investigation into the latter issue was ongoing.
Today, the Electoral Commission said it had referred Tana and Verve Magazine to police over an alleged failure to include a promoter statement in an election advertisement published last May.
The commission refused to give further comment as the matter was with police.
Tana spent $2415 on the Verve Magazine article, her electoral returns showed. However, the article allegedly did not include a promoter statement required by electoral law showing Tana had paid for it.
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick told RNZ in May Tana did declare the payment to the Electoral Commission. She said the failure to carry an authorisation statement was a serious issue.
“The Greens take really seriously compliance with electoral law. To that effect, we’ve had conversations with the Green Party itself, and my understanding is the party has referred it on to the Electoral Commission,” Swarbrick told RNZ.
“The law says that this sits with candidates, and the Green Party make it abundantly clear to all of our candidates across the country that this responsibility sits with them,” she said.
Two former workers had lodged Employment Relations Authority (ERA) claims against E-Cycles NZ, an e-bike business owned by Tana’s husband Christian Hoff-Nielsen.
He has denied the workers’ claims and will defend the case at an ERA hearing later this year.
Christian Hoff-Nielsen, husband of Darleen Tana. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Separately, the Greens hired Wellington lawyer Rachel Burt to lead an independent inquiry into what Tana knew, and when, about the allegations.
One of the former workers, Santiago Latour Palma, told Stuff most of the time he worked at E-Cycles NZ he was doing so illegally on a tourist visa, wages were often late and went unpaid, and he was owed more than $25,000.
He also alleged he told Tana on his first day working he was on a tourist visa and she told him not to worry because he’d be paid in cash, and when he later raised late and unpaid wages with Tana she refused to get involved, Stuff reported earlier.
