‘Pain, hurt and anger’ for ousted Green duo
Ousted Green Party MP David Clendon says there’s a lot of ‘‘pain and hurt and anger’’ over the resignation of co-leader Metiria Turei and his call for her to quit.
Clendon and his colleague Kennedy Graham went public on Monday night about their distaste over Turei’s benefit fraud 20 years ago. They threatened to quit the party if she didn’t resign from the leadership.
The rest of their colleagues rallied around Turei and voted on Tuesday to block the pair from future caucus and strategy meetings and remove them from the party list ahead of the election.
On Wednesday mounting pressure on Turei and the ‘‘unbearable’’ scrutiny of her family led to her announcing she was stepping down from the leadership and the party list.
While Graham has approached the party asking to be reconsidered for the election, Clendon said he was not interested in coming back.
‘‘I have some regrets about not doing another term but really I’m ready to just draw a line under it and go and find something else interesting to do,’’ he told media yesterday.
‘‘Ken has a great deal to offer, he is highly motivated to continue his work, especially around climate change and I absolutely support him in that,’’ he said.
‘‘Yes, there is pain and hurt and anger and I acknowledge that, but personally I think I’ll maintain some of the relationships most important to me.’’
Clendon said the abuse he had received in response to his calls for Turei’s resignation washed over him but the way some of his colleagues and the wider party had alienated him had been difficult.
‘‘We could be angry at what’s been thrown at us over the last few days.’’
Despite a Newshub Reid Research poll showing support for the Greens had dropped almost five points to eight per cent, Clendon said he believed the Greens could come back from it.
‘‘I think there are 101 different variables. Yes, we may have lost the Greens some support, we may have gained some Greens support. We really don’t know that.’’
Graham said on Thursday that he was still waiting to hear back from the party executive about whether he can join the list again.
He expected the executive would meet within a week but said any further comment about it would come from the party’s leader, James Shaw.
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter, who is one of the top contenders to take over as co-leader when the party appoints someone following the election, wouldn’t comment on her leadership aspirations.
‘‘It’s too early – don’t even think about asking me that until after the election.’’
When asked if she would support Graham returning to the list, she said that was ‘‘entirely up to the party’’.
"We could be angry at what's been thrown at us over the last few days." Green MP David Clendon