Heather du Plessis-Allan: Have the Greens underestimated Darleen Tana?
Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive - A podcast by Newstalk ZB - Wednesdays
Is anyone else getting the feeling the Greens have underestimated just how far Darleen Tana will go to to mess with them? I feel like they might have bit off a bit much with this one. Because so far - it’s 2-nil to Darleen.She won the first round when she refused to quit Parliament. The Greens clearly thought that after they’d finished the report she’d just slink off in shame - but she refused to do that.And she’s just won the second round today by forcing the party to cancel that meeting they were planning to have on Sunday where they were going to plot kicking her out of Parliament. I'm actually impressed - this woman has got way more gumption than any of us thought.And who knows where it goes from here? Because this is clearly not the end, from where I'm sitting there are at least two more rounds to come. They're going to go to court in two weeks, that's another round - and then they'll have to actually, eventually trigger the waka-jumping law and kick her out. By now, they must be dreading what she pulls out next. I know I'm running against the grain on this one - but good on her. I'm enjoying watching her make them squirm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not on her side, she’s weird - but the Greens deserve this.They chose her. They were very happy to have Darleen on their list for the election, weren't they? She was a nice married Māori lady from Auckland Central who owned a small business, she was someone nice people in Auckland Central who had money and small businesses could identify with and vote for. They were happy to have her then - but they clearly didn't do the checks on her like they didn't do with a whole lot of other Green MPs who've since gone rogue.They've got to live with their choices - and the big old fight one of their choices is bringing to them. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.