Week in Politics: Former Green MP will be a media target

Analysis - Darleen Tana is going to be a media target when Parliament sits next week, David Seymour tells Pharmac to disregard the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Pāti Māori calls for his resignation, details of the lead-up to the ferry saga are revealed and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump prompts a look at how well our politicians are protected.

Darleen Tana is expected to show up when Parliament sits on Tuesday and she'll be hounded by media wanting an answer to the big question - is she going to stay?

The Greens, her former party, this week released the executive summary of the report which it commissioned into what she knew about allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband's e-bike business.

Tana resigned after being suspended from the Greens' caucus and is now an independent MP.

Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick repeated her call for Tana to also resign from Parliament.

"It is in the best interests of everyone that she resigns. This executive summary makes it very clear that Darleen has failed to meet the standards we expect - not only of MPs within our caucus but across Parliament entirely," the Herald quoted her as saying.

But Tana disputes the report's findings, and made her position clear in an interview with TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman.

"Natural justice wasn't served in that report," she said. "It was not comprehensive, it did not include the voices of key witnesses who were directly involved in the situations.

"Two of the people related to the initial complaints were not interviewed, even though one of those came forward two months later and said they wanted to be heard - the Green Party said no to the investigator."

The report summary is a lengthy document, and Stuff published it in full when it was released on Wednesday.

Reporting on its release, RNZ said it obtained a copy earlier this month and it found Tana "likely" knew about allegations of worker exploitation at her husband's business.

As previously reported, the Greens could use the waka-jumping law to force Tana out of Parliament but they've strongly opposed the legislation in the past.

They haven't ruled it out though, as Swarbrick told Morning Report on the day the report summary was released.

"I am not precluding any possible outcome… the point that I have made time and again is that Darleen Tana has an opportunity to reduce harm and collateral damage, and to take accountability and responsibility and to resign," she said.

"Should that not occur then you can expect that absolutely there is a number of New Zealanders out there who are frustrated, but particularly frustrated Green Party members, and we've got our AGM coming up in about a fortnight."

It's being assumed the question of whether or not to use the waka-jumping law will be put to members at the AGM.

Tana hasn't given any indication that she going to leave Parliament.

The Herald's Thomas Coughlan said last week money could come into it, with Tana needing her $170,000 salary while her husband sorted out his business.

The financial imperative may now be even more important - RNZ reported on Thursday that the business was in liquidation.

"The New Zealand Companies Register shows insolvency, forensic accounting and consulting firm Khov Jones has been appointed as liquidators of E Cycles NZ Limited," the report said.

"According to the New Zealand Herald, a notice in the window of Bikes and Beyond in Newmarket said the store was temporarily closed.

"A second Bikes and Beyond shop on Waiheke Island has been advertised on Trade Me since 2 July with a list price of $0.00," the report said.

Tana was at Parliament on Wednesday, Stuff reported, and staff from the Parliamentary Service relocated her office.

Media opinion is behind her deciding to stay on.

"The Greens are naturally hoping she will do the honourable thing and resign," Sunday Star-Times editor Tracy Watkins said in an editorial. "History suggests it's unlikely. Turkeys don't vote for an early Christmas."

Pharmac fight

Associate Health Minister David Seymour shook up Pharmac this week with a letter of expectation which asked the drug buying agency, among other things, to stop considering the Treaty of Waitangi.

"The associate health minister has told Pharmac it is inappropriate for the agency to keep considering the Treaty of Waitangi's place in the health sector," RNZ reported.

His letter to Pharmac board chair Paula Bennett said: "Pharmac's role should focus on delivering improved health outcomes underpinned by robust data and evidence.

"They should serve all New Zealanders on actual need, without assigning their background as a proxy of need."

Seymour said Pharmac had "burned a lot of energy" considering the Treaty when it wasn't directly tied to its core role of purchasing drugs and medical technology.

Seymour, who has responsibility for Pharmac, also asked the agency to update its decision-making and evaluation models. And he wants more transparency and timeliness as well as increased patient input.

It was the Treaty reference that drew the most attention, and Te Pāti Māori called for Seymour's resignation. Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said Seymour was unfit to serve, the Herald reported.

"It is absolutely rotten to the core for a minister to be asserting his bias, prejudice or influence over a board in that way," she said.

"Seymour thinks it is inappropriate for Pharmac to consider the Treaty - I say it is inappropriate for a racist to decide the Treaty's place in the health sector."

Ngarewa-Packer said Māori were more likely to die from cancer and preventable illnesses but were the least likely to receive medical treatment.

Seymour responded in a statement: "[Te Pāti Māori] speak for perhaps one in six Māori. The vast majority of New Zealanders, including the vast majority of Māori, want nothing to do with their race fanaticism."

Boot camp criteria

Boot camps were in the news again this week with RNZ reporting mentors alone could cost $100,000 per young offender.

A boot camp pilot involving 10 boys is due to begin at the end of the month, one of National's campaign promises.

Documents obtained by RNZ which were given to organisations interested in providing the intensive mentor service - a critical part of the 12-month programme - show the potential costs.

One option is a fixed, all inclusive $100,000 per person while option two is an hourly rate with capped monthly hours.

The pilot is costing approximately $5.1 million. The teens will spend three months in what the government calls a military-style academy near Palmerston North and then be intensively mentored in the community for nine months.

They've been chosen from those already in youth justice residences who had been convicted of two crimes with a sentence of at least 10 years - the criteria for the young serious offender category the government is seeking to write into law, the Herald reported.

The Defence Force is involved, but it's not clear to what extent.

"Children's Minister Karen Chhour remains unaware of the finer details of the pilot, despite her and the government coming under persistent questioning for information," the Herald said.

KiwiRail mistrust

A must-read for anyone interested in the ferry saga is an analysis of what went on before the government canned the iReX project, written by RNZ's Russell Palmer.

It's headlined https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/522335/interislander-officials-mistrust-of-kiwirail-led-push-to-scrap-project 'Officials' mistrust of KiwiRail led push to scrap project'] and is based on a study of 44 documents revealing the advice and information given to the previous and current governments.

One document from the Treasury showed officials were worried that KiwiRail would "view ministers as eventually accepting the project largely in its current form as a fait accompli".

"Officials' suspicions of KiwiRail's claims were nothing new," the report says.

"Back in June 2021 - before the ferry contract was fully signed off - officials said that while it was 'responsible asset management' for the company to replace the ferries, they were concerned about the information they had been getting.

"By mid-March 2023, ahead of that year's budget - Grant Robertson's last as finance minister - the concerns about KiwiRail's approach did not seem to have improved."

There's much more to it, the analysis is a hefty piece of work.

Money down the drain?

Another interesting analysis was published this week - Stuff's investigation of the cost of consultants for the previous government's Three Waters project.

"The Labour government paid consultancy firms a whopping $64 million for work establishing the now defunct Three Waters reform project - money that ultimately went down the drain," Glenn McConnell's article said.

It reveals that multinational professional services company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was the biggest winner, paid $35 million.

"Fellow 'big four' companies EY (9.3 million), Deloitte ($532,000) and KPMG ($352,000) also raked in cash as the government worked to hand control of water management to four big regional authorities," the report said.

"All up, the controversial Three Waters - axed by the National-led government - cost $1.3 billion, of which about $800 million was given to councils and other organisations to spend on infrastructure."

The Department of Internal Affairs, the lead agency for Three Waters, said it had to hire consultants because it didn't have the skills and expertise in-house and it was a complex reform programme.

Trump's close call

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump prompted RNZ to look at how well New Zealand politicians are protected.

The article lists assaults on MPs, and refers to a recent University of Otago study which said 98 percent of 54 MPs who took part said they had experienced harassment ranging from disturbing communication to actual physical violence.

In the US the Secret Service is responsible for protecting the president. In New Zealand the Dignitary Protection Service (DPS), a division of the police, protects the prime minister and other figures.

"The specifics of security are kept under a pretty tight veil of secrecy," the article said, and went on to quote former intelligence worker Paul Buchanan, the director of a strategic assessment consultancy.

He said the DPS was nowhere near the scale of the Secret Service. It was much smaller and lacked autonomous resources of its own.

Police serving in the DPS would get special training, Buchanan said.

They would have to be fit, observant, discreet and good at multitasking and would need to be "cool, calm and collected" in a crisis.

"No Rambos or John Wicks. Low-key professionalism, in other words."

Buchanan said that generally New Zealand protection followed the form set in other nations.

"VIP protection provided by the NZ Police DPS and uniformed officers is much looser (than the Secret Service) but follows the format of concentric circles - close personal protection surrounding the VIP and then wider circles of police and other security officers."

Future mother of the nation?

The last word this week goes to Richard Prebble, writing in the Herald. He's touting Barbara Edmonds as a future Labour Party leader and thinks she could handle the job:

"Being the mother of eight is more challenging than being the chief executive of Air New Zealand."

* Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA's political editor and seven as Parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire.