The Public Service Commissioner has appointed Michael Heron KC and Pania Gray to lead an inquiry into allegations that Census and vaccination programme data was misused.
Today, the acting Public Service Commissioner Heather Baggott announced the details of the inquiry, which was ordered by the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Public Service on Monday.
The claims, first reported by the Sunday-Star Times, alleged Census data from the South Auckland Manurewa Marae was used for Te Pāti Māori’s election campaign.
Te Pāti Māori have strongly denied the claims.
Baggot's statement announced the appointment of Heron and Gray of Kororā Consulting to lead the inquiry.
Heron is a King's Counsel and former Solicitor-General who previously led an investigation into the breach of sensitive personal information involving Covid-19 active cases.
Gray recently completed a review for the Public Service Commission into Te Puni Kōkiri’s recruitment processes. She is the managing director of Kororā Consulting, whose work includes inquiry and investigation services.
Baggot also outlined the terms of reference for the inquiry.
The inquiry will consider:
- the safeguards government agencies had in place to ensure the appropriate use of peoples’ personal information by third-party service providers and whether those safeguards were effective.
- what relevant personal information was shared with the relevant third-party service providers, and what mechanism was that information shared under.
- what concerns were raised with the government agencies prior to media reporting, and what was done in relation to those concerns.
- whether relevant government agencies had arrangements in place relation to identify and manage any conflicts of interest of third-party service providers, including perceived conflicts of interest, and whether those were effective.
The agencies in the scope of the investigation are Statistics NZ, the Ministry of Health, Health NZ, Te Puni Kōkiri, Oranga Tamariki, and the Ministry of Social Development. The third-party service providers within the scope of the inquiry include the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust and Manurewa Marae Trust Board.
“These are very serious allegations that have been strongly denied by the relevant third-party service providers,” Baggott said.
“The allegations go to the heart of trust and confidence in New Zealand’s democratic processes and institutions. It’s important to establish the facts so New Zealanders can trust that when their personal information is collected by government agencies, it is held securely and used only for proper authorised purposes.”
'Public confidence paramount'
When announcing the inquiry, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: "These allegations are serious, and they go to the heart of trust and confidence in our democratic processes and institutions.
"Public confidence in the response to these allegations is paramount."
The investigation would run concurrently with investigations already underway by government agencies, including Statistics New Zealand and police.
Health officials have also sought assurances that Covid and immunisation data had been used properly.
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere has strongly denied the claims, and told 1News earlier in the week it welcomed the investigation.
Takutai Tarsh Kemp was chief executive of Manurewa Marae. She stepped down after narrowly winning the Tamaki Makaurau seat for Te Pati Māori at the election.
Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency Chair Merepeka Raukawa-Tait also welcomed the investigation into the allegations.
"We welcome this scrutiny. We are concerned about allegations, accusations, speculation and innuendo now causing us to expense resource in regard to this inquiry.
"We must never resile from our obligations and duties of continuing to uplift our communities. And I can confirm that the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency exceeded its contract with the Department of Statistics for the 2023 Census."
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