Every three years New Zealanders hand roughly 120 people the keys to the country. A fair share of the people we picked last time spent that trust badly. With the 2026 election now in view, it is worth a cold look back at the conduct that actually put MPs in the headlines since the last vote, because the ballot box is the only performance review most of them will ever sit.
This is not a one party problem. The roll of shame this term runs across the Greens, a National minister and a question mark hanging over a Te Pati Maori linked operation. No side gets to claim the moral high ground.
Golriz Ghahraman and a shoplifting conviction
Former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman resigned in January 2024 once it became clear police were involved. By March she had pleaded guilty to four counts of shoplifting, taking about 8,900 dollars worth of clothing from boutiques in Auckland and Wellington.
In June 2024 she was convicted and fined 1,600 dollars plus 260 dollars in court costs. Judge June Jelas refused her application for a discharge without conviction. Ghahraman then tried to have the convictions wiped on appeal, and in October 2024 the High Court dismissed that appeal too. The conviction stands.
Her defence pointed to a mental health crisis and complex PTSD, and that context is real. It does not change the verdict. A further shoplifting complaint from late 2024 was later reported as under police investigation.
Darleen Tana and the first waka jumping in two decades
Darleen Tana barely got started. The Green list MP was suspended from caucus in March 2024, just 15 sitting days into her term, over allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband’s e-bike business, Bikes and Beyond, including unpaid wages to an Argentine worker.
An independent investigation found she had likely known about the claims and had not told the party. Tana quit the Greens in July but refused to leave Parliament, sitting on as an independent and drawing the salary while the party that elected her asked her to go.
In the end the Greens reached for a tool no party had touched since 2003, when ACT removed Donna Awatere Huata. They invoked the waka jumping law, and in October 2024 Speaker Gerry Brownlee formally removed her from Parliament. Tana was also referred to police by the Electoral Commission, alongside a magazine publisher, over a missing promoter statement on a 2023 election advertisement.
Andrew Bayly and two conduct apologies
The government benches do not escape. National’s Andrew Bayly resigned all of his ministerial portfolios in February 2025, giving up the ACC and Commerce roles, after what he described as an overbearing and animated discussion in which he placed a hand on a staff member’s arm.
It was his second conduct apology in a matter of months. Late in 2024 a Marlborough winery worker said Bayly had appeared to have been drinking on a ministerial visit, swore at him and repeatedly called him a loser. Bayly stepped down as a minister but stayed on as the MP for Port Waikato, a reminder that resigning a warrant is not the same as leaving Parliament.
The Manurewa Marae census data inquiry
The most serious allegation of the term is also the one where the outcome matters most, so it is worth stating plainly. Former workers at Manurewa Marae claimed census and Covid vaccination data gathered at the marae had been used to help Te Pati Maori’s 2023 campaign. The marae’s chief executive at the time was Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who went on to narrowly win the Tamaki Makaurau seat.
A Stats NZ report found it was more likely than not that census forms had been photocopied and left unsealed, and that data entered into a community database was derived directly from those forms. In its own words, the gate had been left open. But that is as far as it went. Police found insufficient evidence to establish criminal culpability for corruption, and the Serious Fraud Office found insufficient grounds for a fraud investigation.
Kemp and party president John Tamihere consistently denied any wrongdoing, and no finding of misconduct was ever made against an individual. Kemp died in June 2025. The episode exposed a real failure in how sensitive public data was handled, and it remains the biggest unanswered question of the term, but on the official record it produced no charges and no proven wrongdoing.
What this term should remind voters
Put it together and the pattern is not partisan. A convicted MP, an MP ejected by her own party, a minister who resigned twice over in spirit, and a data scandal that singed a third party without ever being pinned down. Bad behaviour does not respect the seating plan.
None of this decides how anyone should vote. It is a reminder of what is actually on the table when you tick the box, the character and conduct of the people asking for your trust, not just the slogans. Voters do not get to call a select committee. They get one lever, once every three years.
So use it with your eyes open. Before the 2026 election, our voting tool lets you compare where the parties actually stand on the issues you care about, so the next three years are a choice rather than a gamble.
Which of these did you forget had even happened, and which one bothers you most heading into the election? Have your say in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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