What happens when the line between helping your people and helping yourself to their private information, blurs
The co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced an independent inquiry into allegations that Te Pāti Māori misused private data. It is the third inquiry involving Te Pāti Māori and allegations of data misuse.
"At the heart of this story are allegations that private information that was collected on behalf of the state for the census and for vaccination programmes was then used for another purpose," says Sunday Star Times' Andrea Vance, who broke the story.
"If that happened that's extremely serious. It's just really something that we can't treat lightly because ultimately it will undermine trust in the institutions of government if it's proved to have happened."
In today's episode of The Detail, Vance explains the various claims about data misuse, which centre around Auckland's Manurewa Marae. The marae plays a key part in the community: it was one of the first places to roll out vaccines, and last year it was part of a drive to promote the census. Then, in last year's election, the marae became a polling booth.
The first allegations were from the Labour Party, which says that community members received two texts urging them to vote for Te Pāti Māori. That shortcode, they say, was owned by a social services charity called Waipareira Trust, which had people's information because it had been involved in the vaccine rollout. Labour alleges that was a breach of privacy.
In the second incident, Statistics NZ is investigating claims that private information collected by the marae during the census early last year was misused by Te Pāti Māori.
"Same principle - information that was collected for one purpose on behalf of the state allegedly was used for another," says Vance.
"Former marae staff say that hundreds of census forms collected by marae staff were photocopied.
"But as well as that, the information was [allegedly] copied and loaded into a database that was maintained by the marae."
Marae staff also say that information was sent to the Waipareira Trust, which is run by John Tamihere.
"He's CEO of Whānau Ora commissioning agency, which was involved in promoting the census and the Covid 19 vaccination drive which he did through the Waipareira Trust and that's the social services charity that he leads, and through the various urban marae, like Manurewa Marae, and then of course he's also the president of Te Pāti Māori."
The third was to do with last year's general elections, when Manurewa Marae was used as a polling booth. There was controversy around that, because the marae's then-chief executive Takutai Tarsh Kemp was standing for Te Pāti Māori.
"That was a very controversial decision," says Vance. "It was raised at the time it was suggested back in February before the election as a potential conflict of interest, and that was raised by the commission's own staff because of Tarsh Kemp's candidacy for that seat."
"The commission received a number of complaints about... Te Pāti Māori advertising being displayed too close to the voting booth and also that voters were given free food or drinks at the marae once they'd voted."
Vance says Tamihere has unequivocally denied both the allegations about the Covid vaccination data and the census collection.
He told Radio Waatea presenter Dale Husband that "this is racism 101 in practice. We have to continue to prove ourselves innocent on allegations, on spurious allegations."
As for Takutai Tarsh Kemp, Vance says "I did ask to interview her, but John Tamihere said he wouldn't permit that."
Vance says that we do need to be aware that there is nuance around the allegations.
"We've got to take into consideration that this is another political party at the centre of these allegations and then again some of these allegations were made by another political party, Labour.
"It has to be treated sensitively, the government has to be really careful not to be seen to be using these circumstances and these allegations as a way to discredit a political rival."
She also says it will likely take time to properly examine and investigate what happened - and that's a good thing.
"It's super important that people have trust that their data is being kept safe and being used for the purposes for which it's collected. That's especially true of census information.
"Equally I think it's important that the public have trust in the electoral system and the Electoral Commission and its integrity.
"We've seen the dreadful consequences in the US, in America, when that trust is eroded."
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