Darleen Tana seeking to stop Greens' special general meeting | 28 August 2024 | RNZ

12:47 p.m. we received an email from lawyers representing darene Tanner notifying us that they had lodged proceedings in the high court seeking judicial review of the green party myself and The Honorable M Davidson as co-leaders and Cony header our governing Council yesterday evening at approximately 5:25 p.m. we received further notice that an application for an interim injunction had been filed at the Oakland High Court seeking an order that the planned special general meeting this Sunday not to go ahead at approximately midday today we received further notice that a hearing has been set down on that interim injunction at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow in the Oakland High Court over the last 24 hours as you would expect we have been working through our legal options and we continue to do so I am confident that throughout this process we have continued to Center our green coper as these proceedings are currently before the court I will not be able to make any further comments specifically about this case at this time I am happy to take your questions but please note that unfortunately my answers will be constrained by those present legal proceedings what's [Music] your it is what it is what's your understanding the legality around in a junction around a special general meeting a day jurisdiction no legality around when you can meet uh good question Jason and again I'd say that on the specifics of this case and the proceedings that are occurring tomorrow morning uh we are being careful about the statements that we are making publicly we have continued to follow process as best as we possibly can to sent to our green party coopa and again we are focused on getting to the appropriate outcome here sason you actually still plan to meet on Sunday what I can say is that in the next uh kind of 24 hours especially subsequent to that court hearing tomorrow morning we will have more to share with all of you and I want to be really clear that we have done absolutely everything that we can here to ensure that we can be fully transparent with you and share all of the information in due course right now a lot of that information is subject to confidentiality and legal advice I just conf I just confirm right now that the special meeting has not been can at this point in time no what kind implications for this head of democracy if the Court decides that you can't hold a meeting of your own pral uh look again we're in a situation where we're working through uh what the Judiciary might come up with uh but again I I think it's pretty clear to anybody uh who has followed the developments over the last few months uh that we've continued to put our values front and center which has included integrity and transparency yeah and I don't think that it's helpful for me presently to speculate prior to uh what occurs tomorrow morning the [Music] uh no have you had any further correspondence from her or there been any interaction beyond the the lawyer correspondency detailed here and since that letter from last week uh none that I aware of now so the letter the letter then still business as usual for the green party on Sunday with your Hoy uh as we said at the time that we outlined the process for the special general meeting uh and when we receive and the receipt of that letter all of that would be considered by all of our party membership and that letter has gone out to all of our party membership who have access to it uh and is being deliberated upon H I think it's pretty clear to anyone who's been watching the developments over the last few months um what we continue to be focused on is doing everything that we can to put Focus back on the issues that actually matter to people which is people in Planet no one person is bigger than this Cooper taxers I think that you'll find that many uh who have provided commentary in the public sphere have agreed with that statement is it too uh so our our lawyer is operating on a prob Bono basis why uh I'm assuming that this is a pretty interesting case so they're do doing it because they're interested in it uh I haven't got into the detail those of the motivations behind that this has been dealt with well I mean Jason you may then want to get involved in a very n and interesting part of the law you been looking You' been looking at have you been looking at the previous case that went to the Supreme Court of has that is that something that has been um you've been looking at through this may um influence this case uh yeah sure of course I mean that's the way that precedent works right but I think that we sometimes lose sight of the trees when we've been discussing this issue uh what we are talking about is somebody who currently occupies a seat in our Parliament that was earned by the 330,000 new zealanders who voted for the green party at this most recent election those new zealanders voted for our principles and our values and our policies and we very strongly are of the view and our caucus has taken the unprecedented stance of requesting unanimously the uh resignation of Daring Tana on the basis that they have completely demonstrated an undermining of those very values and principles that that that 2003 president must um f you with slight confidence in this yeah but again we've currently got this case before the courts and we'll work through the process trying to let's talk about the real victims here uh those workers that are identified in the executive summary that we've also worked really hard to provide to the public so that they can make their own judgments look let's be crystal clear here the best way to minimize all further harm and any further collateral damage is for daring Tana to take accountability and responsibility and to resign that's the same position that we have held for more than a month now question are you alarmed this is a kind of telling political party me of we don't know that yet we don't know that yet so we'll wait and see as to what occurs through those legal proceedings yet can't still the event or postpone it given that your lawyers working for free I mean that's a pretty strong indication to us that this is a cut and dry case from your perspective don't see much Merit in what she's um accusing you of or this injunction is that a fair character right I don't think it would be helpful for me to offer speculation to that effect but we will have more to say tomorrow after those proceedings another way is this keeping you awake at night [Music] no yes and as I understand it having had communication with our party is there should have been some form of Correspondence going out to our party membership over the last half hour or so uh look again let's not put the cart before the horse but you know I've been pretty straight up about the fact that our membership has been incredibly frustrated by the way that things have played out here and definitely the sentiment that I am hearing uh is that yes there is a very strong sense that people would like some accountability and responsibility taken being tested or do you see this as the last Dash effort of somebody that's desperately trying to keep their job I'd leave that to the commentary yet were you surprised by kind of this novel approach of trying to inject you from meeting I mean guys you've been following this it is what it is uh this is very much in line with the kinds of actions that we've seen over the last few weeks and months so we're dealing with what we've got now right in front of us and we have control over our actions and our actions will be continue to be led and centered around our green party values will you attend the of darling's motivation I mean your guess is as good as mine will you attend the hearing tomorrow sorry will you attend the hearing tomorrow I personally will not be at the hearing but our legal representative will be I will be in Ru meeting with affected workers with the proposed closure closure of the maill the party had a chance to speak with daring I know were multiple to which she did not uh no one within our party leadership uh or within our uh caucus uh but that you know we have thousands of members all across the country do you have this advising him I've got absolutely no idea what would be your message to set adviser I think it just Remains the Same that we've been saying time and again which is that you know Darlene has an opportunity here to C tail any further harm any further the collateral damage to take accountability to take responsibility and to step down that will allow all of us to put our Focus back on the things that we all say that we care about which is people and Planet group people around behind the scenes here and cooperating you know VI I'm not that ke to speculate on that could your party though have been more transparent about this obviously this all came to light for a stuff investigation been you know took down could could it have been more s about this for the public uh look I'm confident that time and again uh myself as co-leader alongside mimer and James and marer did the best that they could with the information available with uh to them and with values Forefront of mind but do you think perhaps it think had been more transparent that you may not be in the situation look I think that hindsight is 2020 but again we're dealing with the situation that we've got uh we are human beings that are consistently trying to do our best by our values and by the people that are involved in our party and by the general public that were're elected to represent were you anticipating a legal challenge or did this comes as surprise uh look I I've never found it particularly helpful uh over the last few months to speculate on what might potentially be coming next and all we've done is put every step in front of each other uh with our values at the Forefront of mind but did you at any point feel like based on the things she could have been but again what does that speculation give there's no benefit to me yeah think about so sorry yeah but prepare for what precisely I think as we've all just found this is a pretty novel serice situation do you think D sorry it's a little bit again um would you call on the architect of the war to make any intervention but you can't have your me I don't think it's useful for me to speculate on that look we are in an unprecedented situation as I think all of us have canvased many many times over over the last few months where in a situation where the green party for the first time ever has said that we have a member of parliament who came on on our list that we believe is not fit to be a member of Parliament and that was unanimously recommended by our caucus for them to resign we now have to Grapple with the logical consequences of that we obviously have a piece of law that can operationalize that in the So-Cal party hopping legislation and obviously we've also outlined that we have a VX history with that legislation and that really boils down to two key points the first is concern historically about how that could potentially be used to remove somebody from Parliament to is stepping out on a matter of principle to anybody who reads this executive summary I think we're seeing quite the opposite and somebody abandoning their principles and secondly the potential for concentration of power in political party leaders hands here again we're operating entirely differently from that by going out to our entire party membership to select approximately 200 uh delegates to vote at that sgm trying to do you're sto froming that that feels like it's it's trumping on democracy and and I'm sure we'll offer further Reflections if that does turn out to be the case but yeah I think at this point in time we're putting one one foot in front of the other cool thanks so much guys