Suspended MP welcomes investigation

Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana is welcoming an investigation by the Green Party, sparked after an allegation of migrant exploitation at a business managed by her husband.

“I welcome an investigation and intend to cooperate fully, and I will not be commenting further,” she said in a statement.

The Green Party is facing questions about its handling of the scandal, which saw the suspension of Tana yesterday. The party is attempting to get to the bottom of serious allegations against Tana’s husband, with a migrant worker claiming they are owed $25,000 in unpaid wages. The worker claims they approached Tana for help.

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said inquiries by Stuff, which was investigating the claims, made it clear the party needed to investigate further, despite knowing about the allegation since February 1.

Prior to that, Davidson said the party “only on good faith conversations and own questioning through the process, were confident that a mediation to resolve matters was appropriate, and that there was no prior knowledge or involvement about the allegations for Darlene herself”.

Davidson has defended keeping the matter out of the public eye in that time.

“It became clearer that we needed to investigate whether there may have been some prior knowledge from Darleen to the allegations,” Davidson said yesterday, referring to an inquiry from Stuff on Thursday. “And [that’s] when we felt, to get to the bottom of that, an investigator being brought in to ascertain what involvement there has been and what was known.”

Political commentator and former National Party parliamentary staffer David Farrar said that by not front footing the allegation, the impression was that the party was not in control.

Davidson said it was “only yesterday that we were advised there may have been prior knowledge What is of concern, of course, [is] these allegations are serious ... We've long stood and championed for migrant workers to be treated fairly and to have their human rights and dignity upheld.”

Davidson said it was “raised to our attention from media, I believe, and especially the detail and nature of the allegations and the involvement, which we hadn't seen before”.

The investigation will be run by independent barrister Rachel Burt.