Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have written to the Prime Minister and senior police officials urging an immediate investigation into allegations that the party used private information for its own election purposes.
The allegations came to light after a Sunday Star Times article on former Manurewa Marae workers who collected census forms last year.
The workers alleged private data from the forms was copied and entered into a database, which they suspect was used to target voters in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate.
“Whilst we have welcomed the independent review initiated by Statistics New Zealand, we consider that given our knowledge, these allegations are frivolous but require police to sanction our view,” said Te Pāti Māori President John Tamihere.
Tamihere had sent an email to Stuff reporter Andrea Vance about the allegations from her report.
“We have asked the journalist to front with the evidence on behalf of those making the allegations. They have not.
“We welcome an immediate investigation into these allegations to once again prove our innocence, and to highlight the bias in media,”
‘Māori are being used as a scapegoat’
In an explosive statement posted to social media last night, Tamihere called the party’s treatment scapegoating.
“The fact of the matter is, as usual Māori are being used as a scapegoat to cover up and deflect from what is really going on in this country.
“This Coalition Government has been brought hook, line and sinker by cigarette and tobacco barons; by pharmaceutical barons; by landlords and by mining barons through fast tracked legislation and more importantly, it continues its constant attack on all matters Māori all of the time,” he said.
Tamihere said his party faces endless attacks, saying the issue has been unfairly turned into a racial debate.
“We are the real opposition to this Government. We are a rights-based Pāti, not a race-based. Racism was imported by colonisers. We consented to Colonisers by signing a Treaty.”
By-election possible if Te Pāti Māori allegations true
The Tāmaki Makaurau Māori electorate seat could face a by-election according to an associate professor of politics, after allegations Te Pāti Māori used private data being collected from census forms last year by Manurewa Marae.
It’s alleged the data was used to target voters in the electorate to aid Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp’s campaign.
“If she knew and her campaign is at fault, I think there will be calls for something like a by-election because if you are kind of violating data privacy in a campaign we’ve seen examples overseas where that’s been treated very seriously.”
“New Zealand politics are amateurs, we’re volunteer-run. Sometimes people do make mistakes and it’s a genuine mistake... ...in this case if the candidate or the political party had knowledge of what was happening, I think there will be calls for liabilities and calls for a by-election,” Greaves said.
She believes Māori politicians were held to a more stringent standard compared to their non-Māori counterparts.
“Māori are held to a higher standard and there’s a lot more scrutiny on Māori politics, there’s often allegations of corruption or lobbying or all those sorts of things , inappropriate relationships, money, and all that [are] thrown at Māori, quite unfairly.”
Greaves believes that even if there was wrongdoing, the data wouldn’t have helped Kemp gain votes for the seat in the Tāmaki Makaurau Māori electorate.
“If I had personal details about someone about their household, how many cigarettes they smoked, whether they need help putting their shoes on in the morning, and how much money they earned.
“All those kinds of census information would that help me get them to vote for me? I still don’t think that’s quite a direct correlation.”
Greaves said any wrongdoing would not fall at the feet of the party leaders, nor the president, but the Party Secretary.