Complaint alleged Te Pāti Māori misused info collected for Covid vaccination drive
Wednesday, 5 June 2024
Te Pāti Māori is facing fresh allegations that personal information collected for the Covid-19 Immunisation Programme was used for political campaigning.
A complaint was laid with the Electoral Commission in November by the Labour Party, which referred a breach of electoral laws to police.
But the agency did not notify either the Ministry of Health, the Ministry for Social Development nor the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about an alleged breach of privacy or misuse of personal information.
It comes after the Sunday-Star Times revealed Stats NZ, the Government’s official data agency, is investigating claims private information collected by Manurewa Marae during the census was used by the party.
The urban marae — which was controversially used as a polling booth in last year’s general election — was run by Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp who pipped incumbent Labour MP Peeni Henare to the Tāmaki Makaurau seat by just 42 votes.
The marae was at the forefront of Auckland's vaccine rollout, being one of the first sites to offer immunisations. It was then part of a Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency drive to promote last year’s census, between March and June last year.
And then it became a polling booth at last year’s general election, a controversial decision because of Kemp’s candidacy for the Māori seat.
Former MP John Tamihere is chief executive of Whānau Ora, chief executive of the Waipareira Trust, a Māori urban authority that holds Whānau Ora contracts, and TPM president. He declined to answer questions yesterday.
The new allegations centre around the use of shortcodes — text messages used to send reminders or marketing campaigns to mobile phones.
The Labour Party complaint alleged Māori voters in Auckland received two text messages from the shortcode 2661, urging the recipient to vote for Te Pāti Māori.
Labour raised four issues with the text message campaign in the complaint, and asked the Electoral Commission to investigate.
The complaint said: “The text message is a party advertisement for Te Pāti Māori, but does not contain any authorisation statement.
“The text message comes from a four-digit shortcode (2661) which we understand belongs to the Waipareira Trust…that shortcode has been previously used to send people government information about COVID vaccinations and other matters.
“On that basis, we believe that: People’s rights under the Privacy Act may also have been breached in this campaign, as their personal information obtained by the Waipareira Trust for one purpose (delivering information about government services) appears to have been used for another purpose (promoting a political party).
“…The Trust’s contract with government agencies, which gave them access to personal information such as mobile phone numbers, may also have been breached.”
The complaint also alleged treating — where food, goods or services are offered to influence voters. This is an offence under electoral law, and the Commission received six other complaints including from National and Vision NZ.
At the time, the Commission said the threshold for prosecution is high and did not refer the complaints to police.
The Post has seen text messages from 2661, sent in October, urging people to vote. One said “Want to vote and need a ride to your nearest voting station. Feel free to call Whānau Ora…Make your voice heard. Every vote counts. #NZGeneralElection” It gives a free phone number.
Another urges: “Kai Ora whanau YOUR VOTE MATTERS! Early voting starts today up to Oct 14.”
The Electoral Commission declined to answer questions on Tuesday. It said it could not comment because it had referred the matter to police.
However, it was a breach of election laws — which require political advertising to carry a promoter statement — it referred to police.
When pressed, the Commission offered a further statement from Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne.
'We made a referral to Police regarding the failure to include a promoter statement. However, we didn’t have sufficient information to raise any other matters with any other agency,“ he said.
'When an individual raises a complaint about a potential breach of their privacy, we let them know how to make a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.'
The Commission did not offer that advice to the Labour Party.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health confirmed it had not been contacted by the Electoral Commission.
“The Ministry of Health will cooperate with the investigation into these allegations should it be required,” she said.
On receiving questions from The Post on Tuesday, Tamihere said he was unaware of “any investigation by any agency.
“You have received my response. Thanks for all your efforts keeping our democracy safe.”
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, manage sharing of data with the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency, and was still checking on Tuesday evening whether it had been contacted by the Commission.
MSD works with Whānau Ora on a co-investment approach. It had not responded by The Post’s deadline.
On Sunday, the Star-Times revealed Stats NZ were investigating claims that census forms collected by marae staff were photocopied and retained; and data was entered into an online database and sent to the Waipareira Trust.
They are alleging that information was then used to target Māori electorate voters in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate.
Tamihere, in his role as chair of the Waipereira Trust, denied this.
Marae staff who delivered census forms also included enrolment forms for voters to change from the general to the Māori roll, and gave participants supermarket vouchers worth $100. Tamihere confirmed this.
Tamihere won’t permit Kemp to be interviewed.
Polling booth data reveals that Kemp beat former Minister Henare by around 2.6 to 1 (478 votes to 185), while across the electorate the ratio was 1.004 to 1 (10,068 to 10,026.
It was the tightest race in the country and the surprise upset lead to a recount.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday that the allegations warranted a 'rigorous and very credible' review.
“Filling in your census is a compulsory thing —everybody has to do it — but part of the deal is that your privacy is very jealously guarded.”