Kerre Woodham: What do we expect our politicians to do?

The Greens voted last night to swallow a dead rat. Even the vegans had to chew on a dead rat last night. Green Party delegates overwhelmingly decided to use the Waka Jumping law, which they hate, to eject Darleen Tana from Parliament if she decides not to quit first. Darleen Tana, the former Green MP, currently sits, useless as tits on a bull, as an independent and was the subject of a late night special general meeting zoom. All 185 party delegates present at the meeting reached consensus —I don't think they do anything so trad and bourgeois as vote— they reach consensus within the Green Party, to endorse using the legislation against Tana.   

Political reporters say that suggests the party is far more united on the issue than previously thought. There had been some hoohah about treatment of women and treatment of women of colour within the Greens, but it appears not. It appears they can all see that the reason that Darleen Tana is sitting there squatly in Parliament is because she's got nowhere else to go. She's not acting on a matter of principle, she's not acting on a matter of the higher moral ground the Greens are very fond of finding, she's just sitting there because she needs a gig and as to pay the bills.  

So the Greens have been historically vocal about their dislike for the same law they've now opted to use against Tana, but Green Party Co leader Chloe Swarbrick says everyone should be open to changing their minds when faced with issues like this.   

What do we expect our politicians to do? If a party is elected and you as a voter have listened to the campaign promises, and you've read through their policies, and you understand what it is that they intend to do when they get into power, do you then sit back and watch as they go and renege on every single promise and are not the party you voted for? You'd want to see politicians take a principled stand, wouldn't you?  

Do you expect them to stick to a party that has been disloyal to its voting base, or do you expect them to take a principled stand? Resign and sit as an independent in the House, being a burr under the saddle of the government, reminding them of the broken promises? I think we can all see with Darleen Tana that she needs a gig. She needs a job. She's not going to get one that pays that well. Sitting doing nothing in Parliament is paying her a hell of a lot more than she'll get doing anything else. She is not principled, but other MPs have been, and they should be allowed to do so. They should be allowed to sit in the house and remind a party that it's broken its promises to its voters, in my opinion. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerrywood of Mornings podcast from News
Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
B The Greens voted last night to swallow a dead rat.
Even the Vegans had to chew on a dead rat.
Last night, Green Party delegates overwhelmingly decided to use the
Walker jumping law, which they hate, to eject Darling Tana
from Parliament if she decides not to quit first. Darling Tana,

(00:31):
the former Green MP, currently sits useless as tits on
a ball as an independent, and she was the subject
of a late night special general meeting zoom. All one
hundred and eighty five party delegates present at the meeting
reached consensus. I don't think they do anything so trad
in bourgeois as vote. They reach consensus within the Green

(00:54):
Party to endorse using the legislation against Tanner, and political
reporters say that suggests the party is far more united
on the issue than previously thought. There had been some
who ha about treatment of women and treatment of women
of color within the Greens, but pears not. It appears
they can all see that the reason that Darling Taner
is sitting there squadly in Parliament is because she's got

(01:17):
nowhere else to go. She's not acting on a matter
of principle, she's not acting on a matter of higher
moral ground. The Greens are very fond of finding she's
just sitting there because she needs a gig, has to
pay the bills. So the Greens have been historically vocal

(01:38):
about their dislike for the same law they've now opted
to use against Tana, but Green Party co leader Chloe
Swarbrook says everyone should be open to changing their minds
when faced with issues like this.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Look, I think it's been aired pretty publicly over the
last several months that we've been working through this. We
do have a vex history on this legislation, and there's
statements from former party co leaders, and there's a lot
of reckons out there in the ether. But this is
what deliberate of democracy looks like, you know. I feel
really proud of the fact that last one hundred and
eighty five delegates, representing all of our membership, our thousands

(02:09):
of members all across the country, having had their own
sarah and deliberative processes in their local branches and provinces
and networks, all came to this conclusion and the fact
that it was this kind of unanimous or rather resounding
or constitus I think, yeah, really demonstrates that were as
a party and moving forward together on this issue.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. And that was Chloe Swarbrick, the co leader of
the Greens, talking to Mike Cosking this morning. Now, I
don't have a problem at all with people changing their minds.
You know. Yes, they have taken a stance against the
Wacker Jumping Bill. They didn't like the legislation, but they've
changed their minds because they can see that this is
a piece of legislation that can be used to get
rid of an MP who is not there on a

(02:49):
matter of principle. What happens now, well, Tarana can resign.
She show no indication that she's likely to do the
honorable thing, but she can resign if she doesn't. In
order to try the legislation, the Greens need to write
to the Speaker of the House saying they believe Tana's

(03:10):
defection from the Greens has distorted the proportionality of Parliament,
which it has, and Chloe Swarbrick did this shortly after
the meeting concluded last night. Then it's up to Jerry Brownley.
Chloe Swarbrick did say to Mike that she is anxious
the law would be used for MPs taking a principled stance.
So she wants the opportunity and the ability for MPs

(03:35):
to be able to leave a party without having like
a jumping legislation brought against them if they're doing so
on a matter of principle. But says this is not
the case with Tana and it's not I mean, we
can see that. But let me take you back in
history two a couple of high profile MPs who did
leave their parties because they felt the parties had betrayed

(03:57):
the voters who'd put them into power. Winston Peters set
up New Zealand first after he resigned before he was
pushed from the National Party. He was the blue eyed
boy of the National Party for a very long time.
But when the National Party was elected with the largest
majority in New Zealand's history, they got two thirds of
the seats in parliament. In part the campaigned against the

(04:22):
policies of the Fourth Labor Government, the rogernomics, the neoliberal
economic policies, and they said, look, we're going to get
back to a decent New Zealand and decent society. However,
Ruth Richardson was also an acolyte of the Chicago School
of Economics, which was that whole neoliberal let the market decide,
rising tide liftsaw boats school of economic thought, and Winston

(04:45):
Peter said, hang on a minute, amongst many other things.
I mean, he's a complicated he's a fascinating case. But
he said, hang on a minute, this is exactly what
the voters did not want. You have betrayed the voters
that put you into power and started criticizing the government
and criticizing its policies, specifically it's economic policies. So he

(05:08):
was dropped from cabinet. Jim Bolger dropped him from cabinet,
said you can't be carrying on like this, and he said, yes,
I most certainly can. And he continued to rail against
what National were doing and said it was a betrayal
of the voters and resigned before he was pushed, and
then set up New Zealand first and first passed the
post to get two MPs elected as a phenomenal achievement.

(05:30):
Take nothing away from his abilities. So was it wrong
for him to leave National? I don't believe. So he
did the right thing because National campaigned on restoring New
Zealand to old seventies New Zealand And went directly against that,

(05:53):
and in much the same way, Jim Anderton set up
the New Labor Party because, like many other cloth cap
wearing union members of the Labor Party, they were absolutely
horrified and appalled by the Fourth Labor Government and its policies.
They were absolutely I think they were so stunned for

(06:15):
the first two years by what had happened. Legislation was
coming out of Parliament so far as that the ink
wasn't even dry on the papers. It absolutely fundamentally transformed
New Zealand. The Fourth Labor Government and if you don't
know about that, you should, because it was seismic in
every sense. The nationally Ruth Richardson continued it, and so

(06:40):
all the cloth cap wearers were in a state of
complete and utter paralysis and shock, and Jimanditon said, hang
on a minute, this is just very, very wrong. I'm
going to set up the New Labor Party because the
Old Labor Party does not represent the values of its voters.
So the primary goals of New Labor were state intervention

(07:02):
in the economy, retention of public assets, and full employment.
So what do we expect our politicians to do. If
a party is elected and you, as a voter, have
listened to the campaign promises, and you have listened to
you've read through their policies, and you understand what it
is that they intend to do when they get into power.

(07:24):
Do you then sit back and watch as they go
a reneag on every single promise and are not the
party you voted for. You'd want to see politicians take
a principled stand, wouldn't you. Do you expect them to
stick to a party that has been disloyal to its
voting base, or do you expect them to take a

(07:45):
principal stand, resign and sit as an independent in the House,
being a bourr under the saddle of the government, reminding
them of the broken promises. I think we can all
see with Darling Tana, she needs a gig, you know,
she's she needs a job. She's not going to get
one that pays that well. Sitting doing nothing in Parliament

(08:06):
is paying her a hell of a lot more than
she'll get doing anything else. She is not principled, but
other MP's have been and they should be allowed to
do so. They should be allowed to sit in the
House and remind a party that it's broken its promises
to its voters, and my opinion.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
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