One of its former MPs, Golriz Ghahraman, was in court where she entered a guilty plea to shoplifting and one of its new MPs, Darleen Tana, has been accused of migrant exploitation.
The party isn’t responsible for the actions of either woman but it is responsible for the way it handled both cases, and that’s badly.
This is twice that the party knew about the allegations weeks before they became public and twice it said nothing.
The Greens are vocal to the point of sanctimony about migrant exploitation. They say they took the allegations against Tana seriously but it looks like they are doing that only now the allegations have become public.
Ghahraman’s shoplifting didn’t dent the party’s popularity in the polls, perhaps the fact that the victims were upmarket shops influenced that.
But standing up against migrant exploitation – albeit still alleged, not proven – is part of the Greens’ brand and the way the party has handled damages that brand.
Standing a new opposition MP down from portfolios privately is in effect doing nothing.
Had the party leadership gone public about the allegations, and standing Tana down from her portfolios, they might have been able to maintain the high ground.
But they’ve lost that with another cover up.
To do that once was bad enough, doing it twice shows they didn’t learn from their earlier mistake.
This is serious political mismanagement and raises serious questions of integrity.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
This is twice that the party knew about the allegations weeks before they became public and twice it said nothing.
The Greens are vocal to the point of sanctimony about migrant exploitation. They say they took the allegations against Tana seriously but it looks like they are doing that only now the allegations have become public.
Ghahraman’s shoplifting didn’t dent the party’s popularity in the polls, perhaps the fact that the victims were upmarket shops influenced that.
But standing up against migrant exploitation – albeit still alleged, not proven – is part of the Greens’ brand and the way the party has handled damages that brand.
Standing a new opposition MP down from portfolios privately is in effect doing nothing.
Had the party leadership gone public about the allegations, and standing Tana down from her portfolios, they might have been able to maintain the high ground.
But they’ve lost that with another cover up.
To do that once was bad enough, doing it twice shows they didn’t learn from their earlier mistake.
This is serious political mismanagement and raises serious questions of integrity.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
1 comment:
And contemporaneously.
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