A Green Party meeting set for the weekend to decide whether Darleen Tana will be booted from the party under the waka-jumping legislation won’t go ahead.
Tana sought an injunction yesterday to stop the Sunday meeting, when party members were set to decide whether to use the law to oust her, after her resignation from the party.
After a hearing before Justice Simon Moore in the High Court at Auckland on Thursday, Tana’s lawyer Sharyn Green said a deal had been reached.
Tim Smith, of Thorndon Chambers, representing the respondents, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and others, has agreed to an interim injunction ahead of a full hearing for the injunction application, set for September 12 in the same court.
Tana sat in the public gallery during the brief hearing and later declined to comment to media.
Justice Moore said the court has made accommodations for a full-day fixture at short notice.
“There is an obvious pressing need for these matters to be determined as fast as possible,” the judge said.
A few minutes after the hearing began, Smith and Green stepped outside the court to confer with each other and take instructions.
When they returned, neither raised any issue with an interim injunction remaining in place ahead of the substantive hearing of the full injunction application in just over two weeks’ time.
“You’ve been able, between the two of you, to sensibly sort out the road forward,” Justice Moore said.
Tana’s lawyer Sharyn Green (on her feet, left) and Tim Smith, lawyer for the respondents, who include Chlöe Swarbrick, appear before Justice Simon Moore in the High Court at Auckland on Thursday morning. Photo / George Block
Tana had earlier indicated a preference for they/them pronouns.
Justice Moore sought clarity on this towards the end of the hearing.
“What is the applicant’s preferred pronoun for the purposes of consistency?”
“Mrs,” replied Green.
“That’s the honorific... so her?” asked the judge.
“Yes.”
A minute issued by Justice Moore after the hearing shows Tana is seeking judicial review of the decision by the Green Party to commission an independent investigation into her awareness of, and the actions the former Green MP took, regarding personal grievances taken by former employees of her husband’s company E Cycles NZ Ltd.
”Additionally, Mrs Tana alleges unfairness and says she was induced to resign her membership of the party,” Justice Moore’s minute says.
Tana also sought an injunction to prevent the respondents – including Greens co-leader Swarbrick – taking any further action as part of the investigation, or convening a meeting on Sunday to decide Tana’s fate.
Darleen Tana - former Green, now independent MP - at an August 20 press conference where she said she was gobsmacked to be held up as a “liar” and “not fit for purpose” by Green Party leadership. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In a memo filed on Wednesday night, the respondents agreed not to convene the meeting ahead of the hearing of the full application.
They also agreed not to send notice to the Speaker of the House under Sections 55A to 55D of the Electoral Act, covering how MPs can leave parliament.
Tim Smith, lawyer for the respondents including Swarbrick and Tana’s lawyer Sharyn Green, agreed to those undertakings at Thursday morning’s hearing. As a result, they both consented to interim injunction orders.
Those orders prevent the party convening the meeting on Sunday or sending notice to the speaker.
The full judicial review application will be heard at the Auckland High Court on September 12, set down for a full day hearing starting 10am.
The Greens respond
Swarbrick was not at the hearing, but later said the party did not want to be caught up in protracted legal proceedings.
“This morning in court, under instructions from Marama Davidson and I as co-leaders, and our party governing council, Kaunihera, our lawyer agreed to defer our planned Special General Meeting until the proceedings brought by Darleen Tana are concluded, following a substantive hearing on 12 September,” Swarbrick said.
“We will, unfortunately, not be able to confirm a new date until we are confident in the appropriate conclusion of legal proceedings.
“We have been clear consistently that our approach has been to uphold our Green values. We are in Parliament to fight for people and planet, and that’s where we want our focus to be.
“However, we are dealing with the situation in front of us and will do everything we can to ensure we continue to provide full transparency as the public of this country deserve.”
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March held a lunchtime media conference at Parliament saying he was confident in the processes his party had taken so far around the situation.
A new date for the meeting had not been set, he said. The date would continue to be discussed.
“We still believe the right thing for Darleen to do would be to resign. It is still our view that the way Darleen has acted make them unfit for Parliament.
“This is not of our doing, Darleen chose to take this to the court,” he said.
“As Chlöe indicated yesterday, this is a thing that is happening at a really fast pace. I want to make it clear that part of that is avoiding this going longer than it needs to be.”
Menéndez March said the party was fronting up “as often and soon as we can... pretty much as we go.”
Asked if he felt “out manoeuvred” by Darleen, he said “no.”
The party were responding to the situation in a very “Green party way” Menéndez March said, which involved bringing the membership along with the leadership as they responded to the situation.
He said the party is focused on avoiding protracted proceedings and members want to move on from the issue.
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