It's been a troubling run for the Green Party. Can they overcome the drama and get back to governing?
Former Green Party MP Darleen Tana. Photo: Marika Khabazi
MP Darleen Tana's recent resignation from the Greens is only the latest in a string of dramas affecting the party.
Newsroom political editor Laura Walters says the problems can be summed up as three different, but related, struggles: conduct issues, personal tragedy and new leadership.
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"They all kind of influence each other," she says. "They're all feeding into this really difficult time that the Greens are having."
In today's episode of The Detail, Walters walks through some of those difficulties.
In May 2023, Elizabeth Kerekere resigned from the party after bullying allegations came to light.
There's been a long list of issues since then - Golriz Ghahraman's shoplifting conviction, Julie Anne Genter's angry outburst in parliament and the resignation of co-leader James Shaw.
The party has also been faced with personal tragedy and illness. In February, Fa'anānā Efeso Collins collapsed at a charity event in Auckland and died. Last month, co-leader Marama Davidson revealed a breast cancer diagnosis.
The recent allegations against Darleen Tana centre around her husband's alleged migrant exploitation. She has resigned from the Green Party, but so far, not from Parliament. The Greens could invoke the waka-jumping rule to kick Tana out of Parliament - but they've been strongly opposed to that legislation in the past.
Former Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi
When it comes to questionable conduct, Walters says that "it raises very valid questions around things like their vetting process, their support processes, whether the party is operating in a fully professionalised way as it needs to, and the candidates that they're picking".
Though Davidson's recent diagnosis and Collins' death are separate, Walters says they are still related.
"We've got these personal tragedies, which do complicate things further and add to that emotional stress and fatigue and everything like that," she says. "That makes it really hard for the party and also might just be influencing their behaviour and decisions a little bit."
With Davidson unwell, co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has had to step up to the top job without the support of a full-time co-leader, with only a few months of leadership experience under her belt.
"At the same time they've got new communications staff who have come in, they've got a new chief-of-staff who has come in - so there's a lot of change," Walters says.
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