Stats NZ chief executive Mark Sowden will leave at the end of his term.
Security is the buzzword these days, it’s simply everywhere. Long gone are the unbelievable days of leaving your house unlocked and the windows open when you take a trip to the grocery store.
The notion of going to work without your swipe card, if your job’s in the city, is a no-brainer. Without the card, which my 3-year-old son loves using as a plaything, you are left standing on the outside looking in, as I was this week.
It left no option but to head back home to collect it, otherwise, something as simple as leaving the office to go to the toilet is an impossibility.
It’s frustrating but it’s what we expect in today’s world, wherever we go. And the same applies to online security, like for example trying to pay a bill online from your bank account.
New rules at my bank won’t allow that to happen if you don’t correctly name the account holder but many invoices have a letterhead that doesn’t represent the account.
The point is security is becoming non-negotiable and we’re told we should be thankful for it and in most cases, we are, like when you fill out your Census forms that contain a lot of personal information about you.
It’s important the bureaucracy has the information so agencies can make the right decisions when it comes to many aspects of your life.
Why on earth a polling booth was allowed at the politically involved marae is beyond comprehension.
The party has vehemently denied any wrongdoing but in one of his rare interviews with Pākehā media, the Māori Party’s president John Tamihere admitted on Radio New Zealand that Census data may have been photocopied at the marae, but should have been destroyed on the same day.
Why was it photocopied in the first place? Apparently that’s for the marae to answer.
Māori Party president John Tamihere. Photo / Mike Scott
And anyway, he’s suggesting it’s all part of a conspiracy, saying it’s only in the interests of Pākehā who wanted it sorted out because Māori are the only people who get investigated.
“There’s not one rule for all in this country by a long shot ... we suffer a significant microscope,” he said. It’s been that way since he was at school, he said, and it’s the same today and it plays out in different ways.
“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,” he concluded.
It’s rather curious that he felt Māori were being singled out and investigated in this case considering it was the Māori Party who called in the police in the first place.
And it’s not only in the interests of Pākehā that this is sorted.
As the new Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche said, the whole issue surrounding the security of information fell well short of what should have been expected in this case. It cuts to the heart of the democratic process.
Tamihere says there’s a belief among non-Māori that somehow Māori are crooked and he says that has to be nipped in the bud, asking in this case “where’s the evidence?”
Well, that will be determined by the police who are there at his behest.
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