Former Green MP Darleen Tana has officially been ejected from Parliament. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
- Former MP Darleen Tana has been removed from Parliament.
- Speaker Gerry Brownlee made the announcement in a formal gazette after the Green Party wrote to him asking to enact the waka-jumping legislation.
- Tana had been an independent MP since leaving the Green Party, but had refused to resign altogether.
- Tana was suspended from the Green caucus over questions about her knowledge of, and failure to disclose, allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband's business.
- She will be replaced by Benjamin Doyle - the next person on the Green Party list.
Darleen Tana has been removed from Parliament, and is no longer an MP.
A statement from the Green Party, which Tana was a member of until she quit the party in July, announced the Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee had confirmed Tana's removal by adding a notice to the Gazette, which carries legal weight.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the party had gone "above and beyond" the requirements of the waka-jumping legislation, which the party had opposed in party because it put too much power in the hands of the party leaders.
"This Gazette from the Speaker today draws a line under the issue," she said.
"Last week, 185 Green Party delegates, representing our thousands of members across the country, came to unanimous consensus to put this request to the Speaker. This, of course, went well above and beyond the requirements in the law. We have always been and remain a proudly grassroots-led party," she said.
The law enables a party leader to ask the Speaker to remove an MP from Parliament if they are considered to have distorted the proportionality of Parliament.
A gazette notice by Brownlee said "that the seat of Darleen Tana has become vacant by reason of her ceasing to be a parliamentary member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand".
It was dated 22 October.
Tana had taken the party and co-leaders to court in an attempt to stop the party meeting to decide on her future, she claimed the party had not followed its own processes.
But her bid failed, paving the way for the party to eventually decide to invoke the waka jumping legislation. She has indicated she will appeal the court decision, but the party said it would not be delaying its decision any longer.
Tana was suspended from the Green Party in March after an inquiry into migrant exploitation.
She resigned from the party in July, but remained in Parliament as an independent MP.
Tana has been approached for comment by RNZ.
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