Darleen Tana was suspended from caucus in March and resigned from the Greens this week. Photo: Marika Khabazi
Workers at the centre of migrant exploitation claims are not interested in whether the Green MP allegedly involved resigns from Parliament - they just want their wages.
Darleen Tana was suspended from caucus in March after being linked to allegations involving her husband's bicycle company. Almost four months and an independent review later, she has resigned from the Green Party.
Nathan Santesso is an advocate for two former Bikes & Beyond workers, who have since filed claims with the Employment Relations Authority. He said the men were relieved the report reflected what they had been saying, but Tana's future in Parliament was not their main concern.
"They're not really that focused on that, and they weren't focused on her resigning or anything like that. They just want to get their entitlements, and their wages," he said.
"We've got an ongoing process with the Employment Relations Authority. That's what they're focused on."
Tana had not resigned from Parliament, nor indicated whether she intended to do so. However, on Waiheke Island, where she and husband Christian Hoff-Nielsen lived, locals had no doubts about what she should do.
"Considering the review into whatever she had done was longer than the review into the Titanic, I think it was about time something happened," Sheldon Brown said.
"I think absolutely she should resign."
"If you make your bed, you've got to lie in it," one woman said.
Another woman, Arienne Young, said the list MP had let the community down in this instance.
"I think before that everyone liked her, but now that this came to the fore it's sort of destroyed her career really."
RNZ's attempts to speak with the Tana have been unsuccessful, but the MP provided a written statement saying she does not feel "natural justice has been followed".
"I want to make it clear that I do not accept the findings of the report and believe that it substantially misrepresents the level of my involvement in my husband's business. This was an investigation into what I knew and should have disclosed to my party leadership. I am therefore deeply concerned by the party's summary of the findings. The report does not say that migrant exploitation has occurred, let alone that I am responsible for it in any capacity."
She was "deeply concerned" by how the Green Party had summarised the report, and also accused her former colleagues of making up their minds before she had her say at an urgent caucus meeting on Saturday.
As a list MP, Tana was not voted in by an electorate.
Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis said she was entitled to stay in Parliament, unless her former party invoked the waka-jumping rule. The Greens voted for the law when it was reintroduced in 2018, but only did so to appease their coalition partners.
"So if the Green Party no longer want her to be there, her sort of moral authority to remain is questionable. But from a legal point of view the only way she could be forced out would be for the Green Party to use a piece of law that the Green Party doesn't like," he said.
"The Greens have been very opposed to the party-hopping law in principle. They voted 'for' but they didn't want to, they think it's bad law. So if they were to use it, it would be going against what they say the law ought to be. So they could use it, but they run the risk of being called hypocrites."
The Greens had not ruled out using the legislation, but said they were yet to discuss it. For now, they called on Tana to "do the right thing" and willingly resign from parliament.
