Green MP Darleen Tana has been suspended for 115 days – half of her political career

The Greens appointed lawyer Rachel Burt to investigate the allegations. The status of that investigation, including whether it has been completed, is unclear.

The Greens say that in the interest of maintaining natural justice, they will not provide any updates on the status of the report until the party has reached a conclusion.

The Greens have been saying for some time that the investigation is nearing completion.

On April 9, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said The Hui The party is “close to the end of this independent investigation.”

In May, Green Party co-chair Chlöe Swarbrick suggested in an interview with Newstalk ZB the problem was close to being solved.

She declined to give a specific date for when Burt would report, but said the matter was “quite advanced.”

When asked why the investigation was not yet complete, Swarbrick explained that the scope of the investigation had been expanded after new allegations came to light through media reports.

In this month Herald reported The investigation into the allegations cost $43,000, which was paid for from the publicly funded donations that the Greens, like all other parties in Parliament, receive from Parliament.

In May, things got even worse when Tana was banned from Instagram due to an alleged problem with a paid article in Verve MagazineThis case concerns the alleged failure to make a statement by the candidate in an election advertisement published last May.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers parliamentary politics. He worked for the Herald since 2021 and has been working in the press gallery since 2018.