Kerre Woodham: Making tough decisions is part of politics

The boss said to me this morning when he arrived, “Good of you to show you support for the Greens.” It's like what? He gestured to my dress. I am in a dress that is utterly, unashamedly green. All green. My Christmas dress can also come out in winter. It is not the reason I chose the dress, but I can't help feeling the teensiest bit of sympathy for the Greens. They have had a shocking run. Elizabeth Kerekere, who resigned after an investigation into her poor handling of staff and colleagues and for sending a mean text about Chloe to the wrong chat group. Oops. Julie Anne Genter and her startling and unprecedented outburst in the House, subsequent allegations of anger management issues, and a Mea culpa from her saying she’s working on bettering herself and stepping away from volatile situations.

We had Golriz Gharaman and her sticky fingers, the sudden death of Efeso Collins, the resignation of James Shaw, who is the best greenie in parliament on green issues, possibly the only person in Parliament who, well the best person in Parliament who had the best grasp of climate change, who was there in the Green Party for what you'd imagine are the right reasons. You had co-leader Marama Davidson's cancer diagnosis, and now, finally, finally, the conclusion of the investigation to Darleen Tana and exploitation of migrant worker in her business and her husband's business. Finally that's over.

Clearly, the report is damning because the Greens have been calling for Tana's head. Chloe Swarbrick spoke very well yesterday at the stand up in the Great Hall. Clearly, she is absolutely furious and feels personally betrayed. And clearly, the findings are serious because not only have the Greens told Darlene Tana in no uncertain terms to resign, they've told her to repay the salary she received while she was under investigation. What happens next? Well, acting Prime Minister Winston Peters says it's a disgrace and Darleen Tana needs to go.

WP: Well, our electoral law is fine except it's not being enforced. This is a disgrace. I mean, $42,000 of taxpayers’ money has been used by the Greens to find out what was going on when they should be spending their own money. You've got someone who has been told that she should leave Parliament. She probably won't. She’ll probably go and join the Māori Party, and then you got these purists saying we will not enforce the law that's already there now to ensure that the proportionality of Parliament remains. And it demonstrates that, you know, some parties are getting away with stuff because they've got members there claiming qualifications they never had. They were never challenged with the mainstream media. Here comes another example where this level of tolerance for an, a party that's demonstrating every day how bad it would be if they ever got to be in control, in government and nevertheless, in these circumstances, she's still there, and she should not be there and in the sense that everybody's got to be accountable and she's not.

AD: Well, they're claiming that they've done everything they can, they ask her to resign from the party, she resigns. Then it's up to her to go to the speaker and resign herself. But as I said earlier, turkeys don't vote for Christmas...

WP: No, no. I'm sorry, they're not doing everything they can. They could expel her and then they could make it very clear to the speaker that she's no longer a member of their party. And that would mean that she would have to stand down as an MP. All the law is right in front of them, written for such circumstances. But the question is, you chose this person that could not be trusted, and now you're saying that it's all the rest of us, and our problem about getting rid of this person, whether it's a male or female MP doesn't matter. It's simply not satisfactory.

Well, that's an understatement. That was Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters talking to Andrew Dickens this morning.

The report will be released so we can see for ourselves, according to the Greens, once all the named parties have been consulted. But what to do about invoking the waka-jumping clause if she decides she's not going to leave Parliament? If she decides she's going to ignore the pleas from Chloe Swarbrick and her party. The Greens hate the Electoral Integrity Act, which is what the waka-jumping law is formally known as, despite being forced to swallow that dead rat back in 2018, the coalition agreement. There seems virtually no chance that they will use the party axing option to force Tana from Parliament, unless they have a massive change of heart.

They held back from doing so when Elizabeth Kerekere quit, but there's a big difference because this is very, very early on in the electoral cycle, we're only six months in. Elizabeth Kerekere only warmed her seat for five months. So, the taxpayer only had to pay for a useless MP for five months, which is still five months too many. Darleen Tana would be there impotent and hopeless for two years. Two years! And more, if she chooses to stage a sit-in in defiance of her former party this is the perfect time for the Green Party to dismount from their increasingly lame high horses. Idealism and zealotry are all very well and good, but you might in principle disagree with the law, but you must invoke it if you can if you don't want to rip off the taxpayer.

Making tough decisions is a part of politics and it's time the Green Party grew up and showed that pragmatism trumps idealism when it comes to protecting the voters.

Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.