Police investigation looms over Te Pāti Māori
Thursday, 20 February 2025
A major political fall-out hangs over Te Pāti Māori as the privacy commissioner and the police look into complex allegations first brought to light by whistleblowers in June.
The slew of allegations relate to the misuse of personal data for political campaigning, and offering supermarket vouchers at a voting centre.
It has sparked a series of investigations, the first of which - a damning inquiry into how well government agencies kept safe data obtained by third parties with links to Te Pāti Māori - was released on Tuesday.
The allegations
The allegations first came to light when whistleblowers contacted media in June.
They made a raft of allegations, first published in The Post, which implicated six government agencies: Health NZ, the Ministry of Health, the Electoral Commission, and Te Puni Kokiri - the Government’s principal policy advisor on Māori wellbeing and development.
Whistleblowers alleged that census and immunisation data collected or obtained by two agencies - both of which are headed by John Tamihere, who is also Te Pāti Māori president - was misused for political campaigning.
The first set of data related to the census. Stats NZ had contracted the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency - who subcontracted Manurewa Marae - for help with a last-ditch attempt to collect census returns from hard-to-reach Māori. The agency collected an extra 40,000 census forms.
But the whistleblowers allege census forms were photocopied, sent to the Waipareira Trust, and entered into an online database. Tamihere, who is chief executive of the trust and agency, conceded to RNZ on Wednesday that this did take place, but rejected the data was used by the party for its campaign.
The marae’s chief executive at the time, Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp, was Te Pāti Māori candidate for Tamaki Makaurau.
The whistleblowers also claim visitors to Manurewa Marae were given $100 supermarket vouchers, wellness packs, or food vouchers if they switched to the Māori roll, and for completing the census forms. This, if proven, may be a breach of the Electoral Act.
As well as this, the whistleblowers allege personal information obtained through the Covid-19 vaccine drive, when the marae was used as a vaccination centre, was used for political campaigning. The party denies this.
The public service inquiry and Stats NZ investigation
Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche found a lack of safeguards at Stats NZ, in relation to data obtained for the census.
The inquirers did not determine if personal information was improperly used, but uncovered a raft of issues relating to how personal information was shared.
The inquiry found Stats NZ failed to safeguard personal information, creating the risk information provided to or collected by Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency could be used for an improper purpose.
As a result, Sir Brian said the Government’s chief statistician, Mark Sowden, would be stepping down when his contact ended next month.
Sir Brian said the saga was a “wake up call”, and that the issues called into question “the integrity of our democratic process”.
Shortly afterwards, Stats NZ released its independent report, following its investigation led by Doug Craig. It found Stats NZ failed to implement the safeguards and rules for ensuring privacy is protected and data secured.
These were included in the contract with Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, to which Manurewa Marae was a sub-contractor, but were not fully enacted.
“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,” Sowden said in a statement.
The Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission is also implicated in the saga. Labour in July 2023 warned the commission against using Manurewa Marae as a voting centre, because of the conflict of interest relating to its chief executive standing for Te Pāti Māori.
However, the commission said the marae was highlighted as a place of significance to local Māori communities, and that hosting a voting centre there would boost voter turnout.
Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne in December faced push-back from MPs at select committee, who questioned why the marae was used. He apologised for allowing the the marae to host the polling booth, and said the perceived conflicts of interest were not sufficiently managed.
He conceded it would be hard to go ahead with using it again as a voter centre, but could not rule it out.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said all options, including a ministerial inquiry into the commission, are on the table.
“I’ll be taking advice from justice on that. All options are on the table, but we obviously want them [the Electoral Commission] focused on the next election and getting that right,” he said.
The political implications
The two released reports suggest a high level of complacency with agencies relying on a “high trust” model while working with Manurewa Marae.
The saga has come under extra scrutiny because of the narrow margin with which Kemp won the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate - she ousted Labour incumbent Peeni Henare by a slim 42 votes at the general election.
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins described Sir Brian’s report as “an alarm bell … a warning sign” against New Zealand’s international reputation for having independent and fair elections. He also said “the result in that seat was unfair”.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said “it stinks” and claimed Henare’s seat was “stolen”.
The unanswered questions
Sir Brian also referred a number of other queries, which were out of the public service commission’s inquiry, to other authorities, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. It will now investigate if Census and Covid-19 vaccination data shared with Manurewa Marae was misused for election purposes.
Sir Brian has also written to the Ministry of Justice and asked the agency to consider - alongside the Electoral Commission - the issue of using incentives to encourage voters to switch rolls.
Arguably the most significant investigation for Te Pāti Māori is the police investigation. Detective Superintendent Ross McKay said police were still working with a number of agencies, and would make its assessment of a criminal case once the other investigations were finished.
“At this point, we want to allow other agencies to complete their investigations, as that will help to inform the police assessment,” he said.
“Where potential criminal activity has been identified, we will respond and investigate accordingly.”
An earlier version of this story said the Serious Fraud Office was carrying out a separate investigation. Instead, the SFO said it was liaising with police in relation to their investigation and would consider referrals made by police. (Amended 5pm, February 20, 2025)