Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on Darleen Tana's legal proceeding delaying Green Party vote

The Green Party denies it's been out-manoeuvred by ex-MP Darleen Tana, whose legal proceedings have delayed this weekend's party vote.

Delegates planned to decide on Sunday whether to use waka-jumping laws to force Tana from Parliament, now she's no longer a party member.

That'll now be deferred until court proceedings on her injunction conclude.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says it's unclear when the decision will take place - but the Greens are guaranteed to use the waka-jumping laws to oust her.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, Senior Political Correspondence with US. Now, Hey Barry,
good afternoon, Heather, Hey, Darlene, Tana. She is definitely outperforming expectations.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Isn't she. Well, she's bought herself more time, hasn't she?
In Parliament?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Because the meeting that was set for this weekend on
the Sunday, they were scheduled to vote on whether she
should be ousted from Parliament with the wokers jumping legislation,
which he most certainly would have if they had basically
enacted that legislation. But now though, there's been an agreement

(00:35):
to delay the interim and junction on that meeting ahead
of a full hearing for September the twelfth. So she's
got that now that time that she can hang around
Parliament essentially doing nothing and await after that for the
Greens to make a decision. So who knows when that's

(00:55):
gonna happen. But I'll tell you what I think. What
she's ensured for herself, Heather, is that they will make
the decision to use as much as it'll be difficult
for them to do, to use the walker jumping legislation
and to get rid of in very short order.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So do you think that because of the game that
she's playing, it'll actually swing the party increasingly and by
the same I mean the members and the delegates increasingly
in behind what the party wants to do here.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Oh, absolutely, I think it'll polarize the party, has no
doubt it's polarizing the public. I mean, here is a
person that's hanging on in Parliament really doing nothing effective,
even though she says she's got support, Well, in fact
she doesn't. She's what she's doing is upsetting the proportionality
of parliament and that is upsetting the three hundred and

(01:46):
thirty odd thousand voters they claim went out and voted
for them at the last election.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Is this also slightly embarrassing for the Greens though, that
they're being outmaneuvered by somebody who they consider to be
so useless.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, yes, the Greens.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
In fact, what they should have done was they should
have decided earlier, right at the beginning, when they realized
that she wasn't going to go, They should have enacted
that legislation then and she would have been one and
truly gone by now.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
But now she's bought more time.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
You're right, she outwitted them and they've really now got
to wait and see what happens without interim injunction.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Hey, I see that basically all cars on the road
could be hit with the road user charges within about
three years. But does this mean so if we're all
paying road user charges, does that mean the fuel exercise
is gone?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
There was a speech given this after or this morning
by the Transport Minister, Simeon Brown, who seems to be
the minister of everything these days.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
But he said that certainly they're.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Looking at scrapping the tax on petrol all together. And
that tax is seventy five cents eliter at the moment
and it's scheduled to increase by another twelve cents elite
in twenty twenty seven. Now he's indicated that lock road
tolls will come between now and twenty twenty seven, and

(03:09):
he's cited three roads that will be looked at, and
that is the Takatimu North Link, the Mnuwatu Gorge and
the Otaki to north of Livin. They'll be all toll roads,
and there'll be more toll rolled roads in the country.
And really, when you look at the system the way
it's worked taxing fuel things have changed considerably. I mean,

(03:33):
the Highways Act was introduced to nineteen twenty two for
goodness sake, and it was meant to operate on a
user pays basic basis, the more you drive, the more
you pay. Well, as we know, there are more efficient
vehicles that can drive more and pay less, while inefficient
vehicles drive less and pay more.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
So it's an inequitable system at.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
The moment, and road user charges and tolls would seem
to be the way this government's going.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Why can we thank Ginny Anderson for the fact that
the toe fees are going to go up?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, this was legislation that was introduced by her as
Police Minister on police road chases, and they essentially the
tow truck drivers. When the cops chased the car and impounded,
it was the tow truck drivers that had to come

(04:26):
and pick it up. Now there was legislation that was
introduced to on these.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Pursuits of cars.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Jenny Anderson was asked it was fear for her government
to introduce a policy it knew would leave tow truck
companies out of pocket, and she said in reply to that,
it's important that people who flee the police are accountable,
and it's important, she said, that police have the tools
that they should wish to if they should wish.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
To use them.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
So it was all as a result of that that
you look at ten to fifteen of the cars that
are impounded twenty eight days or more, they're usually abandoned,
and expecting that to rise as high as sixty percent
when they're impounded for more than six months.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
So who picks up the tab for that? The old toys?

Speaker 3 (05:15):
And I never thought I'd see the day that I'd
be defending toys publicly on radio.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
How about that, Barry, Thank you very much, appreciate it,
very sober, Senior political correspondent.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
For more from Heather Duplicy Allen Drive, listen live to
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