Greens hold door open to staff submitting on Elizabeth Kerekere conduct

Green MP Elizabeth Kerekere is having a message investigated by the party. Photo / Doug Sherring

The Green Party may allow staff members to submit their experiences to a review of the conduct of MP Elizabeth Kerekere, if that is where the investigation leads.

The Herald understands there has been a pattern of infractions involving Kerekere and staff who work at Parliament, and even other MPs - many akin to the behaviour that got Kerekere in trouble last week over a message she accidentally sent to a group chat that appeared to call fellow Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick a “crybaby”.

Kerekere denied the “crybaby” remark referred to Swarbrick.

A Green Party spokesperson would not comment on whether the party was aware of incidents involving Kerekere’s behaviour towards staff. Kerekere did not respond to requests to comment.

They said the investigation will be looking into the matter of Kerekere’s message, which became public last Thursday after it was published by RNZ - although they held the door open to the investigation looking taking a wider view of Kerekere’s conduct at Parliament if relevant.

“Our musterer [whip] Jan Logie and our chief of staff have initiated an internal process that will look into the matter of Elizabeth Kerekere’s message,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not say, when asked, whether Green Party staff would be given the opportunity to submit on the review.

“The process will resemble what people would expect in any workplace conduct matter and will include a thorough analysis of all relevant information.

“At this stage, we will not be commenting further in order to uphold the integrity of the process,” they said.

Kerekere and Swarbrick have not seen eye-to-eye for some time, however Kerekere’s accidental message was the first time the dispute entered into the public domain.

The message, also included a reference to a staff member who works closely with Kerekere.

Some in the party believe this suggests the group Kerekere had intended to post her message to included members of staff.

If this is correct, it would make her offence worse as MPs are generally not supposed to disparage each other in front of staff.

The leaked message suggested Kerekere was unhappy at her bad luck that Swarbrick’s member’s bill on alcohol harm was being debated at the same time as Green Party members were ranking the list the party will take to the election, determining which MPs will make it into Parliament.

“Sucks that her bill goes through during list ranking! Please Universe, pick my bill tomorrow”, Kerekere wrote, before following with another message - sent while Swarbrick was speaking - “OMG what a crybaby”.

The Green Party last week released an indicative list, ranked by party delegates, which tells members where highly-involved members of the party would like candidates ranked.

It ranked Swarbrick third and Kerekere fourth.

Members now have the opportunity to determine the final ranking, apart from a few potential adjustments of that list, which will be released towards the end of May.

Kerekere might have been hoping that a few good news stories over this period might have helped her retain her high placing - instead, the opposite appears to have occurred, and Kerekere will now spend the period of list ranking with her conduct being examined by her own party.