Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on their findings of the inquiry into public services handling of personal information. Video / Mark Mitchell
Significant failures in agencies’ protection of personal information are an “unacceptable breach of public trust”, according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, while Labour’s Chris Hipkins says the revelations ring an “alarm bell” about New Zealand’s reputation for holding fair elections.
Mark Sowden, chief executive of Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ), one of the agencies under fire, will stand down at the end of his term in March, recognising “someone needs to take responsibility”. Both Luxon and Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche have said that was the right thing for Sowden to do.
“Mark’s decision to step down reflects positively on his professionalism and his integrity, which is in line with the standards of accountability I expect of public service chief executives,” Roche said.
Michael Heron KC (from left), Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche and Pania Gray unveil the findings of the inquiry in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The investigation was sparked by allegations last year that data provided by these agencies to health and social providers – including Waipareira Trust and the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (Woca) – linked to Manurewa Marae were misused for electoral purposes. The data had been provided for the purposes of increasing Covid-19 vaccination and Census rates.
Of concern were claims the data was used to favour Te Pāti Māori in the electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau. The party’s candidate Takutai Tarsh Kemp was the chief executive of the marae at the time and won the seat by just 42 votes over Peeni Henare of Labour.
Te Pāti Māori and the providers involved have always denied misusing data. The party’s president John Tamihere is also the chief executive of Waipareira Trust and the Woca.
The inquiry’s scope didn’t cover assessing the credibility of the specific allegations – those have been left to police and the Privacy Commissioner – but was instead focused on whether the agencies which shared the information adequately protected it.
Detective Superintendent Ross McKay on Tuesday said police were working with different agencies “as they investigate various aspects of allegations made about Te Pāti Māori”.
“At this point, we want to allow other agencies to complete their investigations, as that will help to inform the police assessment. Where potential criminal activity has been identified, we will respond and investigate accordingly.”
The police’s focus will be on “whether there was potential criminality that meets [an] evidential threshold for prosecution, or whether the issues related to concerning financial practices are for another agency to examine”.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said he would speak with journalists, but his office later referred questions to the administrative side of the party. Neither the party nor Tamihere responded to questions.
There's been no response from Te Pāti Māori. Photo / Dean Purcell
The 73-page report highlighted a litany of failures by agencies including Stats NZ, the Ministry of Health (MoH), and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora and was called “very sobering reading” and a “massive wake-up call” by Roche.
“It raises a number of issues that go to the core of the confidence and trust required to maintain integrity and sanctity of information entrusted to government agencies. The system has failed and that isn’t acceptable – and it must be, and will be, remedied.”
The headline findings were that MoH and Health NZ didn’t have control over data once downloaded by the providers, had no means for ensuring providers were meeting their contractual expectations, and had no safeguards for managing potential conflicts of interest.
Stats NZ was found to have “insufficient” arrangements to protect the shared data. Among these was a requirement for confidentiality being removed without any officials with the power to do this agreeing to that action. A privacy assessment was also not finalised.
The agency also “largely ignored” internal staff concerns about the management of information and didn’t adequately consider conflict-of-interest provisions.
“As a result, there was a risk of the collection or use of personal information for an improper purpose due to this combination of factors,” the report said of Stats NZ.
The MoH and Health NZ have accepted the findings, with the latter working to revise its protocols to ensure conflicts of interest are actively considered. Stats NZ, which had its own independent investigation, has apologised and will implement 33 actions to improve its processes.
“It is unacceptable for people’s personal information to be misused in the way that’s been alleged, and absolutely unacceptable that we did not ensure that it could not happen,” said Sowden. “To the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, I unreservedly apologise.”
“The allegations do not call into question the validity or quality of the 2023 Census data, but this is a serious situation for New Zealand. It is clear our actions fell short of our own standards; we did not do enough to make sure people’s privacy was protected by our third-party providers, nor did we have the right processes in place to make sure concerns were appropriately escalated.”
Government statistician and Stats NZ chief executive Mark Sowden.
The PSC is taking a number of steps itself, including temporarily suspending the agencies’ ability to enter into new contracts with the providers until they can satisfy Roche their processes are fit for purpose. Information-sharing and conflict of interest standards are also being updated.
The Ministry of Justice will also be asked to consider changes to electoral law regarding financial incentives to switch electoral rolls. There had been a specific allegation that visitors to Manurewa Marae were given vouchers to switch rolls.
The Prime Minister said he was “shocked” by the findings and expected “accountability in the system”.
“It was totally unacceptable because it gets to the heart of public trust and public service,” Luxon said. “If your data cannot be looked after, if your money is not well managed, we’ve ended up in the situation that we have.”
Hipkins said it was “concerning” there were “perceived conflicts of interest that weren’t appropriately managed”, but there were still questions to be addressed by the other investigations into whether the data was improperly used for electoral purposes.
He agreed it was a black mark against New Zealand’s international reputation for having fair elections.
“It’s an alarm bell, it’s a warning sign. We can really tighten this up and I think we must. I think it’s vitally important that our elections are scrupulously independent.”
Hipkins was also critical of the Electoral Commission allowing Manurewa Marae to be a polling booth at the 2023 election. He said it called into question the result because it was so close.
“I certainly felt the election in that seat was unfair, the result in that seat was unfair,” Hipkins said.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said it was “appalling” and Sowden, the Chief Statistician, had been “dramatically” let down by others at Stats NZ.
Peters had “no doubts that Peeni Henare’s seat was stolen from him”.
The Electoral Commission has previously accepted it failed to manage the perceived conflict of interest arising from using Manurewa Marae as a voting base in the election when the marae’s chief executive was standing as a candidate.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
