Tana was ousted by the Greens and asked to quit politics altogether this month after an independent investigation found it was likely that she knew about allegations of worker exploitation at her husband Christian Hoff-Nielsen's business, and did not disclose them to the party until after the 2023 election.
"Yesterday Green MPs discussed a pathway forward with our party around the issue of a former Green member of Parliament who we believe is not fit to hold the position of a member of Parliament, yet refuses to resign," co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick told media today.
Swarbrick made the comments at the party's AGM in Christchurch today, saying one worker was still owed $36,000.
"Our party governing body… after discussion with our party members agreed to call a special general meeting on 1 September 2024. This special general meeting will discuss the potential use of provisions in the Electoral Act colloquially known as party-hopping, to determine whether our party will invoke the legislation in the case of Darleen Tana.
"Today, [co-leader] Marama Davidson and I wrote to Darleen Tana to inform them that it is our view that by resigning from the Green Party but refusing to resign from Parliament, they have acted in a way that has distorted, and is likely to continue to distort, the proportionality of political party representation as determined at the last general election."
Swarbrick said the party told Tana they had 21 days to respond, though her preference would be for Tana to resign "in the best interests of all involved".
"Sending notice to Darleen Tana is, as you all know, one of the requirements under the legislation. But I want to make it clear that we will not be taking further and the final step of writing to the Speaker to trigger the party-hopping provisions unless we have the clear backing of our party to do so."
Swarbrick said party members would have enough time by September's meeting to "thoroughly consider" the issue and Tana's response, if they file one.
She said Davidson had "once again tried multiple times via phone, text and email to engage directly with Darleen Tana to ask for their resignation" this week, but got no response.
The Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill passed in September 2018.
Despite voting for it, the Greens have been historically opposed to the legislation, but the caucus has made it clear Tana's actions were unbecoming of an MP and wanted her gone from Parliament.
"Any decision to use the part-hopping provisions of the Electoral Act will require in-depth discussions not only by our caucus, but the broader Green Party… our party's long-recorded concerns with this legislation have been the potential for concentration of immense power in political party leadership.
"As you can see, the process that we are following here is based on extensive engagement with the flax roots of our membership… we will only progress with the use of the law with the backing of our Green MPs and our party. We have not come to the decision to use this process lightly."
The caucus and members discussed the matter behind closed doors on Saturday.
Swarbrick said if a unanimous decision from the party membership could not be reached, a 75 percent threshold of delegates in favour would allow the party to trigger the party-hopping provision and expel Tana from Parliament.
Tana will not be invited to any Green Party meetings on the matter, as she was no longer a member of the party.
Asked why the Greens did not seem to be getting punished at the polls after a string of high-profile scandals, Swarbrick said it was because the party was "relentlessly focused on the issues that really matter to people".
"While I completely appreciate that there is a lot of interest in particularly this constitution issue here… our caucus has continued to be relentlessly focused on people and the planet, and punching well above our weight in Parliament to hold the government to account on those issues as well…
"While I think much of the commentary coming into [the AGM] was this would somehow dominate, it was just an item on the agenda… This sucks, this is not a situation that any one of us or our party wanted to be confronted with, but we have been, so we're dealing with it."
Other Green MPs have recently resigned: Elizabeth Kerikeri last year amid bullying allegations and Golriz Gharaman this year after being caught shoplifting.
Asked about Tana's new seating arrangement with Te Pāti Māori, Swarbrick said the Greens did not care about "musical chairs".
Appearing with Swarbrick were Green MPs Teanau Tuiono and Ricardo Menéndez March.
