Te Pāti Māori’s self-referral for police investigation forces Government’s hand on data issue

EDITORIAL

The self-referral by Te Pāti Māori to Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to investigate claims that Census 2023 data and possibly Covid-19 vaccination information
was used to target Māori voters in Tāmaki Makaurau has all but forced the Government to order an investigation.

Te Pāti Māori wants the official investigation to be led by the police, as the police are the investigative experts and can quickly determine fact from fiction. They are also non-political and don’t have political agendas to grind.

In police investigations, officers play their investigation cards and findings close to their chests until they can either put forward a case, where there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution and people are charged, or dismiss the allegations through a lack of evidence and/or substance.

Former Manurewa Marae workers and a Ministry of Social Development worker based at the marae claim Te Pāti Māori allegedly used private data from Census 2023 forms to target Māori voters in the Auckland electorate during last year’s election. The marae chief executive at the time was Te Pāti Māori candidate Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who beat Labour incumbent Peeni Henare by 42 votes to win the Tāmaki Makaurau seat and entry to Parliament.

The allegations of misusing private data are serious and any findings could affect political parties, who depend on voter data from a range of data centres and data warehouses to target voter cohorts.

Te Pāti Māori says the allegations are baseless and only a police investigation can completely exonerate it.

The speed at which this Manurewa Marae claim is travelling is quickly gaining momentum and high-level government ministry hui have already taken place. Acting Public Service Commissioner Heather Baggott called in several government department heads “to ensure the serious allegations involving the misuse of personal data during last year’s general election are thoroughly investigated”.

That meeting included Stats NZ, the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Internal Affairs, Te Puni Kōkiri, Oranga Tamariki and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Electoral Commission and police.

The problem is inquiries by government ministries into themselves are not independent.

Stats NZ has already appointed its own independent investigator, Doug Craig, but it’s hard to work out what Craig, as a layperson, can uncover that police, who have legal jurisdiction and expertise to look into extraordinarily complex claims, cannot.

That’s why the self-referral by Te Pāti Māori to the Government and police was a classic move to force the Government to act.