Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have written to Darleen Tana to inform them that it is their view that their decision to resign from the party but not from Parliament has distorted the proportionality of the House.

“Today, Marama Davidson and I wrote to Darleen Tana to inform them that it is our view that by resigning from the Green Party but refusing to resign from Parliament, they have acted in a way that has distorted, and is likely to continue to distort, the proportionality of political party representation in Parliament as determined at the last general election,” said Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“We have advised them that they have 21 working days to respond to the matters raised in the letter. We have also reiterated our clear request for them to resign from Parliament, and in so doing, draw this matter to a conclusion. This would be in the best interests of all involved.

“Sending notice to Darleen through this letter is one of the requirements under the legislation, but I want to be clear that we will not be taking the further and final step of writing to the Speaker to trigger party hopping provisions unless we have the clear backing of our party to do so.

“Allowing for Darleen Tana’s response to this letter while scheduling the Special General Meeting a few weeks away will mean our membership has the time to thoroughly consider this issue throughout their branches, provinces and networks. It also means they will have Darleen Tana’s response, if they choose to respond, in order to inform their decision making.

“Marama Davidson has been fully involved in this process, and on Friday, Marama once again tried multiple times via phone, text and email to engage directly with Darleen Tana and ask for their resignation.

“As I have said many times, any decision to use the party hopping provisions of the Electoral Act will require in-depth discussions not only by caucus but by the broader Green Party, consistent with our kaupapa and values of consensus decision-making.

“Our Party’s long-recorded concerns with this legislation have been the potential for concentration of immense power in political party leadership.

“As you can see, the process we are following is based in extensive engagement with the flaxroots of our membership.

“This is a far cry from the black-letter law process that would enable Green MPs to just do this of our own accord. We will only progress with the use of this law with the backing of our Green MPs and our Party.

“We have not come to the decision to use this process lightly, and I would like to thank our Party members and representatives of our governing body, Kaunihera, and our Standing Orders Committee, for their good faith engagement as we work through this issue,” said Chlöe Swarbrick.

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