“This is legislation we have a history with as well,” Swarbrick said, adding that she wanted to make sure it was discussed and considered thoroughly by party members.
Swarbrick said she had faith and trust in the party to make the right decision.
“We have also been looking for accountability,” she said, urging Tana to resign from Parliament.
“She is not a member of the Green Party anymore. She is not fit to be a member of Parliament.”
As long as she stayed in Parliament, the Greens would continue with this process, Swarbrick said.
Tana quit the party this year after a damning report into what she knew about alleged migrant exploitation at her husband’s business. She now sits as an independent.
Speaking to radio station 531pi on Tuesday morning, Tana said she wanted to “make the peace”.
She acknowledged going to court “may have seemed a strange way to do that”, but it was important to do so when she saw the “cancel culture behaviour” happening to Green Party supporters who backed her, Tana said.
“I needed to just call time on some horrendous behaviour,” she said.
Several of the Greens’ Pasifika members resigned in July over what they considered the poor treatment of Tana as well as other process issues.
Tana said she understood the Greens were still considering their next steps. She did not appear too concerned about being forced to leave Parliament.
“I never got into politics to become a career politician, I went into it for the kaupapa ... I don’t have hang-ups about letting that go. The mahi still continues.”
She claimed the party wasn’t following tikanga and had “slammed wahine Māori”.
Tana said the Greens’ treatment of her had been “shocking” and “violent”.
Swarbrick and Greens MP Teanau Tuiono responded to Tana’s concerns on Tuesday by saying that tikanga involved taking accountability for one’s actions, which they didn’t believe Tana had been doing.
The Greens have effectively restarted a process that began in July, at the party’s AGM, where members decided to at least discuss using the waka-jumping bill to get rid of Tana.
In July, the Greens decided to call the special general meeting (SGM) to decide her fate. Party members at branches throughout the country would debate whether they wanted to use the waka-jumping law on Tana and then elect delegates to the SGM who would ultimately decide whether to remove Tana or not. A minimum of 75% of party delegates in agreement was required to remove her.
The meeting was set to be held on September 1 but was cancelled on August 28 after an agreement between Tana and the Greens, while the case was heard at the Auckland High Court.
The process could be restarted quite quickly. Branches have already met, debated and selected their delegates.
If members decide to remove Tana, the party co-leaders would write to the Speaker notifying him of their belief her continued presence interferes with the proportionality of Parliament and that she should be removed. Tana would be the first MP to be expelled under the current iteration of the waka-jumping law.
