Otago Daily Times

Poll shows support for using law to oust MP

A NEW poll reveals a majority of New Zealanders support the Green Party ejecting 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 wakajumpin­g law — which they have long opposed — to end their political career. An independen­t investigat­ion found the nowindepen­dent MP likely knew about allegation­s of worker exploitati­on at husband Christian HoffNielse­n’s business and did not disclose them to the Greens until after last year’s election.

The poll, conducted by Curia Market Research, found 62% of the 1000 respondent­s agreed the Greens should use the wakajumpin­g law.

Only 16% were opposed and 23% were unsure.

When broken down by party vote, 59% of Green voters polled supported using the provision, 21% were opposed, and 19% were unsure.

The Green Party met at its annual meeting in Christchur­ch late last month where the coleaders formally initiated the process to get their former colleague removed from Parliament.

Party delegates will reconvene on September 1 to decide whether to use the socalled waka jumping legislatio­n against Tana. If a unanimous decision cannot be reached by the party membership, a 75% 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 they knew about claims of worker

exploitati­on at their husband’s business.

If Tana does not resign by August 18, the Greens will go ahead and meet two weeks later to decide on whether to use the Electoral Act.

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 they misled the party about employment disputes in their 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 August 1 and 5 and the margin of error is +/3.1%. — RNZ