Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the growing calls from the Greens for Darleen Tana to step down

The Green Party is doubling down on their calls to encourage Darleen Tana to exit Parliament.

A new report from an investigation into alleged migrant exploitation at her husband's business has inspired Tana to quit the Greens.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says it's the right course of action for Tana should step down.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very sober senior political correspondence with us. Hey Barry, good
afternoon her does So what do you make of Darling Tana, Well,
she needs to leave.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, we haven't seen the report, which is a big
problem because if, as Chloe Swarbrick suggested this morning, that
the only person that's holding up the making public of
the report is Darling Tana herself, well, she's been unavailable
for comment anywhere. And if it is as you say,

(00:30):
that she wasn't involved in migrant exploitation, that I think
would come as news.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Now I just say the report didn't find.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
That didn't find it. Well, if that's the case, it
come as news to the caucus of the Green Party,
the fourteen members excluding Darling Tana, because they've all said that,
you know, she is unsuitable to be an MP. I mean,
if they can't sack her on telling Porky's because like

(00:58):
you said, all politicians tell Porky, so that that is
not a case. But the interesting thing to me is
that Tamaki Mikado, which is where she stood in the
electorate of and that was formerly the home of Madamer Davidson,
who decided to get out. She couldn't win it, and neither,
of course could Darling Tana She got two nine hundred

(01:23):
and twenty five votes, well behind the other two. Tuta
Kai tash Kemp, who's that young Mauldi MP. She won
it by forty odd votes over Peni Henare and of
course that's being contested at the moment as well. So
that's provided a lot of news what the Greens do

(01:43):
have available to them though, And don't forget they begrudgingly
supported the wocker jumping legislation in twenty eighteen when it
was brought back as part of the coalition agreement between
Labor and New Zealand. First they in their confidence and
supplies decided they would support it. Well, you know, they've
eaten a humble pie once, although James Shaw said they

(02:07):
swallowed a dead rat. Well, I've done it once. And
if they're really intent on getting rid of Dahli and Tanner,
they can simply do it under this legislation, writing to
the Speaker saying that she's no longer a member because
of themselves when they voted for the legislature.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Absolutely, you're right, but their opposition to this goes all
the way back to Rod Donald. They have held the
firm that it should not be the place of party
leaders to be able to kick out MPs because those
MPs are now no longer convenient to them, which is
literally what they will be doing.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, But the argument was party leaders having all the
total power. Well, in this case it was the party itself,
the MPs, the fourteen members of the caucus that decided
that she should gods were well, not everybody agrees with
their party leaders. And on this occasion, if you listened

(03:03):
to Chloe Swarbrick anyway, and we've got to take their
word for it, because nobody else is talking that she
said unanimously behind it, Darlen Tana should go.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Do you think she should? Do you think she should
quit parliament?

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh? Yes I do. Yeah. I mean she's lost the
faith of her parliamentary colleagues and she got there on
the Green ticket, so you know she's got no choice. Independent,
she'll have no power whatsoever as a former Independence have
shown on that place.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Can I talk to you about Biden?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yes, indeed you can.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Is Luxon going to meet her?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, we'd love to know, wouldn't we, because he'll be
rubbing shoulders certainly at the NATO summit.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Like, this is what Parkinson's looks like. Can you just
tick off whether you It's.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Interesting because the New York Post that reported that Biden's
personal doctor met with Parkinson's expert what eight times, the
Press secretary said he hasn't got Parkinson Parkinson's disease, but
I do hope he remembers. This is Joe Biden when
he sees Chris lux and what he told us when

(04:13):
he was here almost eight years ago to the day.
He was singing the praises of the Pacific and America's
places in it.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
When the President and I took office, we made a
basic determination, and I mean this sincerely. We made a
determination in the Asia Pacific region is where much of
the history of the twenty first century will be written.
We are a Pacific power. We have always been a
Pacific power. We are going nowhere. We mean what we

(04:43):
say when we say we are rebalancing to the Pacific.
This is where the action is going to be. The
energy and dynamism of this region is absolutely undeniable.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, you know, let's hope some of that dynamism rubs
off because in the four years but at subsequent to
that meeting, Donald Trump took no notice of New Zealand
or the Pacific really at all, and even Biden's administration,
he seems to have forgotten the words. So maybe there's
a been of Parkinson's involved and what he said about

(05:15):
the Pacific when he was the vice president under Obama
at that time.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Barry, thank you very much appreciate this, Barry so Per,
Senior Political Correspondence. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio