Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick speaking in Auckland today. Photo / Alex Robertson
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick speaking in Auckland today. Photo / Alex Robertson
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick says Green MP Julie Anne Genter’s intimidating behaviour was not comparable to a previous case involving a National MP - despite her attributing a description of Tim van de Molen’s behaviour to that of her MP’s.
In an interview on TVNZ’s Q + A this morning, host Jack Tame tripped up Swarbrick while questioning her about the party’s response to Genter’s behaviour in Parliament.
The interview foreshadowed Swarbrick’s first big speech as co-leader this afternoon in which the Greens hoped to put successive controversies behind them.
“Quote: Aggressive in the sense of being hostile, unprofessional with an element that was objectively threatening but not in the sense of physical violence - do you know who that describes?” Tame said.
Swarbrick: “I am assuming you are talking about the behaviour of Julie Anne Genter which she obviously immediately apologised for.”
Tame said the quote actually referred to National MP Tim van de Molen, who was found in contempt and censured by Parliament last year after being accused of threatening a Labour MP in a select committee meeting.
He noted that National Party leader Christopher Luxon stripped the MP of his portfolios at the time and asked whether the Greens should be doing the same with Genter.
Swarbrick said they were “two completely different circumstances” because Genter immediately apologised and acknowledged her actions were unacceptable while van de Molen denied his behaviour and only expressed regret after being censured in Parliament.
She would not say whether she would strip Genter of her portfolios if she was found in contempt of Parliament.
“Julie Anne made a mistake. She messed up. She owned up to that. And there have been [consequences] through the likes of the public chastising that have occurred over the past few weeks.”
Swarbrick was also asked about Green MP Darleen Tana, who has been earning a full salary for two months while being independently investigated over allegations of migrant exploitation.
The allegations relate to Tana’s husband’s e-bike business.
Swarbrick said that the first-term MP was still getting full pay because it was important that natural justice was applied to her case. She added that “people still need to provide for their families”.
The length of the investigation was “out of my hands”, she said, and further allegations had contributed to the delay of a final report. She would not put a deadline on the completion of the investigation.
‘Bad things are not inevitable’
Swarbrick gave her first major speech this afternoon since becoming party co-leader.
Her State of the Planet address in central Auckland argued that voters could make the National-led coalition a one-term government if they channeled their frustration into action.
She said it was hard not to despair when confronted with Government policies which benefited landlords and corporates at the expense of others and threatened the natural world.
“The reason it feels like no matter how hard you work, you can’t get ahead is because we have a set of rules in this economy that actively exploit people and the planet for the benefit of a wealthy few,” she said.
“The reason that the system feels like it’s rigged is because it is.
“The coalition Government not only want to double down on that, they want you so frustrated that you switch off from politics - giving the lobbyists and corporate superpowers all the more free rein.
“It is hard not to despair. But that’s what they want… They want you to think this is all inevitable.
“But bad things are not inevitable. And we actually can have good things if we fight for them.”
Swarbrick’s speech centred on last year’s Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Those dramatic events highlighted that “the climate crisis is here” but she said that the worst outcomes were not inevitable.
“We have choices about what the future looks like - if we act now and bring emissions down as fast as possible, storms like this will stay relatively rare.
“But if we let oil companies continue to burn fossil fuels and pollute our climate, we may look back on these storms as being mild and manageable. I know which world I would rather live in.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson speaking at the party's State of the Planet event in Auckland today. Photo / Alex Robertson
Co-leader Marama Davidson’s speech touched on similar themes. She highlighted the $16m in donations made to National, Act and NZ First ahead of the general election, much of which came from “property developers and business tycoons” who stood to benefit from their policies.
She also highlighted the tensions within those parties ahead of the Government’s first Budget this month.
“To the right, Act is trying to fire all the people who make our public services work, while in their own cooker corner New Zealand First hoards 1.2 billion dollars for hand-chosen pet projects.”
