Live: Green co-leaders respond to Elizabeth Kerekere’s abrupt resignation

Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson are speaking live at Parliament after Friday night’s resignation of Elizabeth Kerekere. Watch above.

Elizabeth Kerekere has resigned from the Green Party, but not before taking aim at its co-leaders as she’s investigated over bullying claims.

Kerekere broke her month-long silence at 8pm Friday night, speaking to Green members about those claims and the “crybaby” text which sparked her investigation. Around the same time, a Green Party spokesperson said Kerekere sent a letter of resignation to the caucus.

She intended to become an independent MP and then retire from politics at the election, party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson said in a statement. The co-leaders said they would not try to oust her from Parliament with the waka jumping law.

During the meeting, Kerekere didn’t reveal she’d resigned. But she hit out at Shaw and Davidson, saying they made it very difficult for her to continue as an MP.

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She also denied calling Chlöe Swarbrick “a crybaby”, saying it was actually a response to another message – and she was talking about herself.

She also denied bullying anyone and said she’d apologised to Swarbrick over the “crybaby” text.

The silence breaks

Kerekere broke her silence during a Zoom call with about 400 Green Party members. Sources who attended the meeting told Stuff that Kerekere criticised the investigation process, and said she’d only received its terms of reference on Wednesday.

Her supporters had been critical of the time this investigation was taking, saying it was “dragged out” and questioning why it had to take so long – especially during the list ranking process. The Green members are currently ranking the Green MPs and wannabe MPs to form their list for the election.

Kerekere said the weeks-long investigation process was stopping her from doing her work. She hasn’t spoken to any reporters since the crybaby text and had avoided Parliament altogether. Barely anyone had heard from her until Friday night.

Sources from the meeting said Kerekere directly criticised Shaw and Davidson, claiming they had declined opportunities to de-escalate the crybaby saga. She suggested she felt pushed from the party.

Kerekere said she believed the crybaby message was leaked purposely, from an MP attempting to get a higher list ranking at her own expense. She told the members she thought the leaker’s plan had worked.

According to those in the meeting, she said the other Greens didn’t appear interested in why the “crybaby” message was leaked.

In a draft Green list released early April, Kerekere had a very high ranking, at fourth place. Her steep accession since she entered Parliament was understood to have ruffled feathers amongst older hands.

Late on Friday, Shaw and Davidson said they disagreed with some of Kerekere’s statements – and would discuss this on Saturday morning.

“Kerekere made a number of statements whilst addressing party members tonight, that we consider to be untrue,” she said.

Green members weren’t able to ask Kerekere any questions at the meeting. In the wake of Meka Whaitiri’s shock defection from Labour, she also said no other political party had approached her.

Green power ranking

The Green membership is in the midst of an MP and would-be MP power ranking process, to form the official party list for this election.

A high ranking guarantees a seat. And if an MP’s ranking goes down, it could mean they’ll lose their jobs at the election.

Last week, the Green members met to vote on delaying the ranking process. Those wanting to delay it said it wasn’t fair to vote before the investigation was complete, but the members ultimately decided not to delay the ranking vote.