A Te Pāti Māori MP and the marae she once ran are at the centre of claims that private information collected during the census was used for political campaigning.
Stats NZ, the Government’s official data agency, is now investigating after a whistleblower from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) came forward with a series of allegations relating to Manurewa Marae.
The whistleblower also laid a complaint with police last week.
Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp stood down as the marae’s chief executive last year after narrowly beating incumbent Labour MP Peeni Henare by only 42 votes in the election’s Tāmaki Makaurau race.
The probe comes as a number of former marae workers have alleged that:
The probe comes as a number of former marae workers have alleged that:
- Hundreds of census forms collected by marae staff were photocopied and retained; and data from the forms such as personal contact details, household occupancy and birth dates was entered into an online database and sent to the Waipareira Trust. Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere runs the social services charity and is chief executive of Whānau Ora, and denies this.
- They believe that information was then used to target Māori electorate voters in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate.
- They also allege that Marae staff who delivered census forms also included enrolment forms for voters to change from the general to the Māori roll.
- Participants were given $100 supermarket vouchers, wellness packs or food parcels to induce them to complete the forms.
- Visitors to the marae last year were also given $100 supermarket vouchers when they completed the forms to switch rolls.
- Attempts were made to alert Stats NZ and MSD, but neither agency acted.
They are just allegations, but they are incredibly serious. They appear to involved Stats NZ, MSD and the Electoral Commission. Rather than each investigate their silo, maybe there should be an official inquiry by a KC into them?
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
10 comments:
For some reason I can believe it. But it's not corruption when a maori is involved is it? I'm thinking of becoming a maori and there has been a massive swell in maori numbers as they are pretty much untouchable and above the law.
Agree David, but why would there be an investigation Ieven if what was claimed were true, this is nz....nothing will happen to them....
Nice work Andrea Vance - when she decides to be a journalist she is brilliant.
So Stats NZ & MSD were notified before the election, but did nothing?
The question is, had they done their jobs, would this have affected the election result?
My guess is yes - Kemp wouldn’t have won, TPM would have won less voted & there would have probably been no overhang.
As for Tamihere - where’s the investigation into him?
Just like a 3rd world failed state in africa. In zimbabwe farmers got kicked off their farms simply for being white. These whites were born in zimbabwe, contributed hugely to the rconomy and helped hundreds of families working on the farms by paying for schooling and housing, raising the standard of living. The regime members would sit on their land with guns, stating that this was now their land that was stolen from them. Sound familiar? Kiwis who say to just ignore it and that it will eventually calm down are being naive. The activists are now in the high court. If te pati, greens, media and labour make up a coalition next term , then what is there to stop this happening in nz?
This really does need to be investigated at the highest possible level, if not, all senior leaders throughout maoridom are going tainted by association by turning a blind eye or burying thier heads in the sand. The nepotism, corruption and hate inciting behavior of te Pati Maori needs to be called out by those leaders within maoridom who have Mana and able to give wise counsel.
We edge closer to the day when seriously dangerous action will take place to restore proper normal western values to what was NZ.
My father's generation would have found it simply incredible that NZ could look like the Third Reich after 5 years of battling it in WW2.
These unethical paru huas display classic leftist behaviour: the end justifies the means, and if it advances what they regard as the good of the collective they claim to represent, that’s the highest form of morality [sic].
Now we'll see if our 'Parliament' really is supreme eh.
The Maori party must be thrown under the bus as their foolish behaviour might prod the masses of sheeple into waking up enough to see all of the grifters on the left and their marxist end-game.
Anon 3.52 - the sheeples need to awake first from their somnambulant apathy. This is proving to be extraordinarily difficult.
It would help if the MSM gave this matter the same standard of coverage it would undoubtedly receive if it involved National, ACT, or Winston First.
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