The Privacy Commissioner will investigate if data was misused for Te Pāti Māori’s election campaign.
Waipareira Trust chief executive and president of Te Pāti Māori John Tamihere is defending the use of data at Manurewa Marae, saying there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing.
He said they were targeted for being a Māori organisation, attracting extra scrutiny over suspicions Māori were somehow “crooked”.
A scathing report on the handling of the data says Stats NZ, Health NZ and the Health Ministry failed to install proper safeguards.
The Privacy Commissioner will now investigate if Census and Covid-19 vaccination data shared with Manurewa Marae was misused for election purposes.
The inquiry was triggered by accusations the data collected by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, Waipareira Trust and the marae was then used by Te Pāti Māori for its election campaign.
Allegations were made about staff conduct at Manurewa Marae during the local elections 2022. Photo / Mary Afemata, LDR
The marae was used as a polling booth in the 2023 election and the Māori Party’s candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, was also the marae’s chief executive. Kemp narrowly won the seat, beating Labour’s Peeni Henare.
The Public Service Commissioner on Tuesday announced he doesn’t know whether personal Census and Covid-19 information collected at the marae was misused – because it was out of scope in the commission’s investigation.
Roche says it will be for other authorities, including the police, to determine if personal data was misused.
Tamihere told RNZ there was no substance to any of the allegations and he has no concerns.
He said whistle-blowers had not been able to provide evidence that the data was misused.
Every political party used data and Waipareira Trust which had existed for 40 years had built up huge data sets, he said.
He denied that the census data from government agencies that had been shared with the marae was then handed over to Te Pāti Māori.
“It’s easy to throw stones but you’re shifting glasshouses when you do so.”
Asked if it was in the interests of all Māori to have the issues cleared up, he responded that it was in the interests of all Pākehā.
“There’s not one rule for all in this country by a long shot ... we suffer a significant microscope ... we will continue to participate in the democratic process whether people like it or not and we are a growing force politically in this country. That will continue whether people like it or not.”
There was a belief among non-Māori that somehow Māori were “crooked” and this must be “nipped in the bud”, Tamihere said.
Tamihere agreed there was some photocopying of Census forms at the marae but the instruction was that they needed to be destroyed on the day.
Te Pāti Māori had been the ones who had asked the police to carry out an investigation into the accusations even before any inquiries were set up, he said.
Tamihere also accused Labour leader Chris Hipkins of “missing the boat” in terms of the recount for the seat and said Māori across Auckland voted for Takutai Tarsh Kemp but all the focus was on a single polling booth at the Manurewa Marae.
Tamihere said there was no substance to allegations that a text message from Te Pāti Māori had been sent to voters using census data.
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