Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on the Green Party voting to invoke the waka jumping legislation for Darleen Tana

Green Party delegates have voted to ask Speaker Gerry Brownlee to remove the now independent Darleen Tana from parliament.  

It's now down to Brownlee to decide if Tana's resignation from the party —but not Parliament— affects the proportionality of the House.  

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls told Ryan Bridge the party was previously against the legislation even being in place.  

He says it's remarkable for as many delegates to come together and agree, and it draws a line under the situation. 

He said former co-leader Metiria Turei being involved was a surprise move, as even Chloe Swarbrick had no idea she would be contributing to the call.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darling Tana. She looks like she's going to be given
the boot from Parliament's all up to the speaker.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The Greens have basically voted and voked and said, yes,
we want the Waker jumping legislation to apply here. We
want to have Darling Tana Woker jumped. Jason wolves as
News talks of Be's political editor. He's with me this morning, Jason,
Good morning, Good morning, Rain. Good to have you on
the show. So they had a press last night, right,
what are they saying?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Indeed, it was about nine to thirty last night, so
it actually sounds like the meeting wrapped up a little
bit sooner than they had anticipated because it was thought
that they'd be doing a press conference this morning at
about seven am. But that's been kaibosh because Chloe Swarbrick
fronted press last night and essentially she came out and
said yes, the Greens came to a basic consensus on

(00:44):
this and said that the party delegates want to get
Darling Tanner out of Parliament and they've voted to use
the Waker jumping legislation to do so, which essentially is
them saying that they think that she distorts the proportionality
of Parliament and they've written to the Speaker to suggested
as such. So really in the hands of Jerry Browne

(01:05):
now and we'll hopefully find out from him today what
the next steps are.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's obviously he had a while to
think about it. Interesting the vote though, it was all
of the one hundred and eighty five delegates voters to
do this, and apparently the likes of Matiia today coming
back to be quite influential in the vote.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
The return of Materia today is it's massive. She has
been basically absent from the political landscape since she quit
politics many many years ago. Of course, she did that
in quite a dramatic fashion before the twenty seventeen election,
and she hasn't really been seen in public in terms
of any sort of political part to play since then.

(01:43):
So her coming back is such a shocked surprise move.
Even Chloe Swarbrick said that she had no idea that
she would be making this contribution to the Call last night,
and it really just goes to show how deep seated
this issue is within the Green Party. I mean, Ryan,
you'll remember that it was the Greens that were the
most strident critics of the walker jumping legislation.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Here we are, but Jason, here we are. The interesting
thing about Matidia to day is there is a woman
who was scorned, who left the party because she admitted
to the benefit stuff years and years ago. Maybe she's
coming back saying, look, if you stuff up, if I
had to leave, you know, then perhaps you need to
as well.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
There could well be an element of that, and I'm
sure as the days go on we'll get more details
of what it was the Matidia today actually said. But listen,
it was enough to get a party such as the Greens,
which is so democratized sometimes to a fault, to all
come together on one issue like this. And as I said,
given it was the Greens that were the ones against

(02:47):
the walker jumping legislation even being in place, for all
as many delegates to come together and agree as they
have been, I think it's actually remarkable that this has happened,
and it's really draws a bit of a line under
this whole situation.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, it's a complete sort of moral one eighty in
some ways, isn't it. Jason, Thank you very much for that.
Great to have you on the show. Jason Will's News
Talk ZEDB political editor, The ball is now in Jerry's court.
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