Chinese premier Li Qiang and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at Government House in Wellington on Thursday. Photo: HAGEN HOPKINS / POOL / GETTY IMAGES
Analysis - The government gets serious about the alleged misuse of census data by Te Pāti Māori, and there are more revelations about MPs paying rent to themselves with taxpayer dollars. It's 'unfair dinkum' as Australia changes the rules around 501 deportees and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon discusses some sensitive issues with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this week put the Public Service Commission in charge of an independent inquiry into allegations that census data was used by Te Pāti Māori during the election campaign.
It's a big deal, the government is taking it seriously and if the allegations are proven, there could be consequences for individuals.
Census data is supposed to be absolutely confidential and assurances that it is are frequently given.
This has come about because, as RNZ reported: "A group of former workers at Manurewa Marae said private data from census former was photocopied and entered into a database they believe was then used to target voters in the Tamaki Makaurau electorate.
"Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp was the marae's chief executive before stepping down after she narrowly won the Tamaki Makaurau seat."
The story was broken by Andrea Vance in the Sunday Star-Times.
It has been alleged the data was sent to the Waipareira Trust, which is run by John Tamihere. Tamihere is president of Te Pāti Māori.
Te Pāti Māori has strongly denied the allegations, and effectively referred itself to the police when it wrote to the prime minister, the police commissioner and the police minister asking for an urgent investigation.
John Tamihere. Photo: Stuff / Jason Dorday
The former marae staff are represented by employment advocate Allan Hulse, who told Newshub: "We know upwards of 1400 census forms were photocopied and then that data was put, as I said, into the database that we believe was owned by Waipareira Trust."
Tamihere has also strongly denied the allegations, describing them as "frivolous". He also said the fuss that's being made about it was "part of a continuing narrative of attack" on all matters Māori.
The police, the privacy commissioner and Stats NZ are already holding inquiries, but Luxon said that wasn't enough. He wants the Public Service Commission to hold an independent inquiry focused on the actions of the agencies, while actions of private individuals remain in the remit of the police and the privacy commissioner.
Before Luxon made the announcement, Acting Public Services Commissioner Heather Baggott called in the heads of no fewer than 11 departments to discuss the allegations.
It's a tangled web that's going to take some sorting out, and there's more.
There's another, separate allegation around data collected during the Covid-19 vaccination drive. Labour laid a complaint about this with the Electoral Commission last November.
The commission referred it to the police, according to several reports, but didn't notify the Ministry of Health, the Privacy Commissioner or the Ministry of Social Development.
The complaint involved the alleged use of a message system to send out campaign text messages. Labour believed the number the messages came from was managed by the Waipareira Trust, which was involved in the vaccination drive.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins supported the government's decision to call in the Public Service Commission, but others didn't. Halse, the former marae workers' representative, said he was disappointed, Stuff reported.
"You're never going to get faith in the public service by getting the public service to investigate themselves," he said.
Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Jordan Williams said it was fine for the purpose of looking at government agencies, but wouldn't get to the bottom of it because it had no powers to compel witnesses or the production of documents, and could not examine people under oath.
To understand the scope of this, at least six government departments are under investigation: StatsNZ, the Ministry of Health, Health NZ, te Puni Kokiri, Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Social Development.
Luxon's announcement didn't include an anticipated report back date. It's likely to take many months.
Taxpayer-funded housing for MPs
There are 23 out-of-town MPs who live in their own apartments when they're in the capital and pay rent to themselves by claiming a taxpayer-funded allowance, or in one case pay rent to their wife who owns the apartment.
The hard work on that was done by The Post, which on Wednesday also published photos of the 23 MPs. There are 14 National MPs, seven Labour and two ACT.
Tim Costley. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
This isn't a new thing, it's been going on for decades, but the recent high-profile case of Luxon doing it - he subsequently stopped doing it after intense publicity and a public backlash - has brought it back into the news.
This week it was first National's Otaki MP Tim Costley who was outed, and then Labour's Kieran McAnulty.
The MPs aren't breaking the rules. The allowance, which ranges from $34,000 a year for backbenchers to $52,000 for the prime minister, is there because those who don't live in the capital can't be expected to pay for their accommodation while they're attending sittings of Parliament.
It raised considerable discussion this week, and one of the questions was, how far out of town does an MP have to live to qualify for the allowance?
In Costley's case his home in Waikanae is 58km from Wellington. It would take him an hour to an hour-and-a-half to drive there, which would be a pain - although plenty of people commute from the Kapiti Coast every working day.
McAnulty's home is a fair distance away in Wairarapa. His wife, Gia Garrick, owns an apartment in Petone she bought before they were married and that's where he lives when Parliament is sitting. He claims the allowance and pays her the rent.
Luxon said he was "very comfortable" with Costley claiming the allowance and living in his own apartment, saying the MP had to be in Parliament until 10pm and sometimes midnight, and be back from 7.30am for early meetings.
Hipkins, who lives in the Hutt and doesn't claim the allowance, told Morning Report he was open to considering changes to the rules but didn't think it would make much difference to how much money was spent.
"Ultimately, changes to the rules isn't going to save much in terms of public money because MPs renting from themselves, or renting from someone else, are still likely to end up with broadly the same level of expenses," he said.
Kieran McAnulty. Photo: Phil Smith
"I think the real question is whether MPs should have any pecuniary interest in the places that they're renting."
Like Luxon, he said he was comfortable with his MPs who were claiming the allowance.
The rules don't specify how far an MP has to live outside Wellington to be eligible. The wording is that those who live in the Wellington commuting area are excluded. That area is defined as the districts of the Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council and Porirua City Council.
Costley lives outside those areas, and McAnulty is well outside.
Craig McCulloch, RNZ's deputy political editor, posed the question [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/519364/is-parliament-s-housing-allowance-system-fit-for-purpos 'Is Parliament's housing allowance fit for purpose?' this week].
In the report he quotes Remuneration Authority chair Geoff Summers as saying MPs were effectively treated the same as any other employee would be if they were required to travel for work purposes.
"If I needed to go to Auckland on Remuneration Authority business and stay there for a couple of days, I would expect the Remuneration Authority to pay my airfares and to pay my accommodation," he said.
What if the rules were changed to stop MPs renting their own properties back to themselves? As McCullough says in his article, that could lead to some bizarre outcomes where MPs simply rent their properties to one another instead.
Political commentator Bryce Edwards wrote about this in the Herald and referred to comments he had made on Morning Report.
"I suggested that politicians should only be able to claim the allowance for accommodation provided by third parties, ie. they shouldn't claim an allowance to live in their own properties," he said.
"This wouldn't save taxpayers money but would remove the pecuniary interest that currently complicates the issue."
Edwards suggested Parliament might want to solve the problem establishing some sort of state-owned hotel for MPs.
The housing allowance isn't the only perk MPs get. The definitive article on exactly what they can claim is on RNZ's website, written by RNZ money correspondent Susan Edmunds and titled 'What perks do MPs really get?'
Christopher Luxon and Anthony Albanese in December 2023. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
501 deportations
'Unfair dinkum in Oz deportation policy' was the headline on Thomas Coughlan's report in the Herald. It was about the change announced by Australian Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to the previous guidelines on 501 deportees decided by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
After some heavy New Zealand lobbying, Albanese said a person's ties to Australia would be considered before they were deported to New Zealand.
Under the policy, anyone with a criminal record can be deported. That led to deportees arriving in New Zealand after spending nearly their entire lives in Australia and having little or no connection to New Zealand.
Even after reading Coughlan's article - and he had been to Australia under the Canberra Fellowships Programme funded by the Australian government - it isn't clear exactly what the change announced by Giles amounts to.
"This week's news cycle has been dominated by revelations that Direction 99 (the name for the directive of the Anthony Albanese government to consider someone's ties to Australia before deporting them) has led to some fairly unsavoury types remaining in Australia when they might have otherwise been deported," he said.
"The direction was put under review, and yesterday it was announced greater weighting would be given to community safety. It's unclear whether this means a substantive reversal of the original direction, or whether this is middle ground."
Luxon was asked about this at his post-Cabinet press conference this week, and didn't spend much time answering. He said the number of 501 deportees coming in would be monitored, and he took Albanese at his word when the Australian prime minister said there would be a common sense approach to the issue.
He went on to say Albanese had spent considerable political capital on allowing Kiwis living in Australia to apply for citizenship earlier than was previously the case.
China visit
This week ended with Chinese Premier Li Qiang visiting. He's the most senior Chinese leader to come here since 2017, he was given an official welcome and held talks with Luxon and a team of officials on Thursday and there was a joint press conference.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (C with New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon (L) and guided by Government house Kaumatua Haiwia (R during a three day visit to New Zealand, at Government House on June 13, 2024. Pool photo AFP/Marty Melville Photo: Marty Melville
There are sensitive issues between the two governments and they weren't ignored.
'AUKUS and foreign interference raised in discussions with Chinese premier' was the headline on RNZ's report.
The emphasis the two leaders put on their talks, however, was the importance of the relationship, growing trade between the two countries and expanding cooperation in areas such as education and tourism.
Richard Harman, writing on his website Politik, said the talks could best be described as "friendly but frank" and were, by Luxon's own admission, 50 percent about differences.
*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA's political editor and seven as Parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire.
