Te Pāti Māori seems to be in hiding after allegations surfaced that it used confidential census data to secure an electoral win by just 42 votes.
Broadcaster Duncan Garner calls out Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Instead of facing scrutiny, she fled to the Cook Islands, marching in a protest that has nothing to do with New Zealand voters.
Rawiri Waititi has vanished from sight, and John Tamihere—the real power behind the party—remains silent.
This scandal stems from Stats NZ’s incompetence in releasing Māori voter data, allegedly handed to the Manurewa Marae, which Tamihere runs.
The data is believed to have been used to target voters in a seat that was won by just a handful of households. “If this were ACT, National, or Winston Peters, Labour would be howling,” Garner says. Yet Labour is silent—perhaps because they know they’ll need Te Pāti Māori after the next election.
Garner lambasts the mainstream media for downplaying the scandal, noting that TVNZ has barely mentioned Te Pāti Māori’s involvement. “You have to go out of your way to take the guts of the story out of the story,” he says. The real question remains:
Did Te Pāti Māori cheat its way to victory? The police are investigating, but conveniently slowly—just long enough for the public to forget.
The party that never misses a chance to moralise about colonial injustice has gone missing when asked to answer for its own.
Centrist Ltd.