Waka-jumping law could be triggered: What’s next for former Green MP Darleen Tana and the Green Party?

Darleen Tana Leaving the Auckland High Court. Photo / Carson Bluck

The news arrived in a two line statement from Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick on Friday afternoon saying the party had won a case brought by one of its former MPs Darleen Tana.

“As we have just received today’s judgment, we will take the appropriate time to take advice and consider next steps. We will have more to say in due course,” Swarbrick said.

Those “next steps” include whether to pick up where the party left off when Tana brought the legal action, and resume the process of triggering the waka-jumping law to oust Tana, who sits as an independent MP, from Parliament completely.

Tana did not respond to calls over the weekend, and Swarbrick was on the West Coast and could not be reached. The party said it did not have anything further to add to the statement put out on Friday.

Swarbrick’s next scheduled media appearance will be on her way into the Debating Chamber on Tuesday, unless she decides to speak on Monday.

Everything is in place to remove Tana, should the party wish to.

In July, the Greens decided to call a Special General Meeting (SGM) to decide her fate. Party members would debate whether they wanted to use the waka-jumping law on Tana at the party’s many branches up and down the country. They would then elect delegates to the SGM who would ultimately decide whether to remove Tana or not. A minimum of 75% of party delegates were required to remove her.

The meeting was set to be held on September 1, but was cancelled on August 28 after an agreement between Tana and the Greens, while the case was heard at the Auckland High Court.

The process is very near its end and could be restarted quite quickly. Branches have already met, debated, and selected their delegates.

Sources spoken to by the Herald suggest members favour removing Tana, but it will be impossible to know, until the SGM actually meets.

There still appears to be strong support for removing Tana, now the party has travelled so far down the road of ousting her. Should the party choose to boot her from Parliament altogether, they will get another list MP, and an uplift in parliamentary funding (the party has lost funding thanks to Tana’s resignation).

Some members are frustrated the saga has dragged on this far, suggesting the decision to pursue the waka-jumping legislation removal might have been a mistake. This was not so much because the Greens have historical opposition to using waka-jumping laws, but because the Tana saga has distracted the party from targeting more retail issues and directed its intentions internally.

An alternative approach was demonstrated by National leader Simon Bridges after Jami-Lee Ross was expelled from the National caucus in 2018. Bridges opted not to use the waka-jumping law and Ross stayed in Parliament until the end of the term.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.