Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A new poll reveals a majority of New Zealanders support the Green Party ejecting their disgraced MP Darleen Tana from Parliament altogether.
The Greens last month booted Tana out of their party but are still consulting members on whether to use the waka-jumping law - which they have long opposed - to end her political career.
An independent investigation found the now-independent MP likely knew about allegations of worker exploitation at husband Christian Hoff-Nielsen's business and did not disclose them to the Greens until after last year's election.
The poll, conducted by Curia Market Research and released exclusively to RNZ, found 62 percent of the 1000 respondents agreed the Greens should use the waka-jumping law.
Only 16 percent were opposed and 23 percent were unsure.
When broken down by party vote, 59 percent of Green voters polled supported using the provision, 21 percent were opposed, and 19 percent were unsure.
The Green Party met at its AGM in Christchurch late last month where the co-leaders formally initiated the process to get their former colleague removed from Parliament.
Party delegates will reconvene on 1 September to decide whether to use the so-called waka jumping legislation against Tana. If a unanimous decision can't be reached by the party membership, a 75 percent threshold of delegates in favour would allow the party to trigger the provision and expel Tana from Parliament.
As part of that process, Tana has been given three weeks to respond to a letter asking the MP to resign from Parliament over accusations Tana knew about claims of worker exploitation at their husband's business.
If Tana doesn't resign by 18 August the Greens will go ahead and meet two weeks later to decide on whether to use the Electoral Act.
At the time of the AGM, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said one worker, alleging migrant exploitation, was still owed $36,000.
Swarbrick told RNZ on Tuesday that "discussions are happening at branches and in provinces and networks all across the country" as to whether to use the Electoral Act to get rid of Tana.
She said there was "an immense amount of frustration amongst the membership and that's definitely coming out in some of the conversations", but the process is still in the early stages and delegates haven't been chosen yet.
As part of the Curia poll, respondents were provided context that Tana was elected to Parliament on the Green Party list, and is now an independent MP after resigning from the Greens, following an inquiry into allegations she misled the party about employment disputes in her husband's firm.
It went on to explain the Greens can remove Tana from Parliament, "which would result in a new Green MP off their party list, through a section of the Electoral Act (often called the waka jumping law) that allows parties to expel from Parliament an MP that has left the party they were elected on".
The question put to respondents asked, "would you support or oppose the Greens using the waka jumping law to remove Darleen Tana from Parliament?"
The 1000 respondents (800 by phone and 200 by online panel) were polled between Thursday 1 August and Monday 5 August and the margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent.
