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Speaker 1: Jack Team. The Taxpayers Union wants the Privacy Commissioner to

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Speaker 1: launch a formal investigation into alleged misuse of census data

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Speaker 1: and vaccination data for election campaigning by Tipati Maudi, John

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Speaker 1: Tammahetti and the party deny all allegations. STATS n Z

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Speaker 1: and police are already investigating aspects of the alleged breaches.

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Speaker 1: In this morning, Employment Representative Alan Holtz suggested on Mike

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Speaker 1: Coskins Breakfast that various agencies were told of census data

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Speaker 1: breaches but failed to act. Executive Director of the Taxpayers Union,

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Speaker 1: Jordan Williams.

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Speaker 2: Is with us, good evening, Good evening, Jack.

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Speaker 1: Why is the Privacy Commissioner the right one to look

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Speaker 1: into all of this?

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Speaker 2: Well? Earlier this week we called for the government to

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Speaker 2: create a public inquiry under the Inquiries Act because there

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Speaker 2: for two reasons. The first is that is this correct,

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Speaker 2: as was suggested this morning on Mike Costkins Show with

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Speaker 2: the interview with the Employment Advocate, now that there have

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Speaker 2: been numerous whistleblowers that have gone to the agencies, whether

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Speaker 2: that's SEMSD, whether that STATS in New Zealand, whether that's

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Speaker 2: the Electoral Commission and made these allegations it's not appropriate

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Speaker 2: for those same agencies to be managing or running or

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Speaker 2: even commissioning independent reviews into what's going on, because at

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, part of that review has

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Speaker 2: to be how those whistleblowers were treated. Particularly our concern

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Speaker 2: is around that censor stats in z data. The second

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Speaker 2: point is that even if you have the independence of

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Speaker 2: the review and it's set up with the right terms

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Speaker 2: of reference to include the way officials handled it, they

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Speaker 2: don't have the powers that a government at a public

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Speaker 2: inquiry or the Privacy Commissioner has, and that is to

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Speaker 2: be able to require the production of documents and information

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Speaker 2: and subpoena third parties and interview them under oath, because

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Speaker 2: that is essential if we're going to find out what

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Speaker 2: has happened, because at the end of the day, this

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Speaker 2: information is not in the government's hands. It's allegedly it's

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Speaker 2: these you know, contracted parties to assist with the senses,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. You know, that's where the information is. And

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Speaker 2: only by having an investigation that includes the ability to

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Speaker 2: be able to call them before and the oath are

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Speaker 2: we going to find out what really happened with some

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Speaker 2: public confidence.

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Speaker 1: Right, So it's a combination of the independence that would

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Speaker 1: come with having the Privacy Commissioner, but also the Privacy

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Speaker 1: Commissioner's powers to to compel evidence, to interview people under oath,

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So what would there what?

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Speaker 2: Sorry? And it is powerful, I mean that it is

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Speaker 2: unusual powers unusual in New Zealand to be able to

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Speaker 2: you know, it's it's the level of powers that almost

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Speaker 2: the level that the Serious Fraud Office has. But because

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Speaker 2: of this start, it is the most important from a

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Speaker 2: from a you know, taxpayers perspective, public policy perspective, the

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Speaker 2: census is such a core function of government and most

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Speaker 2: importantly the public having confidence that that data is protected.

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Speaker 2: We think this does meet that threshold for the Privacy

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Speaker 2: Commissioner to use those powers and take a good look

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Speaker 2: and report back to the public either way, so that

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Speaker 2: we can have confidence in the process.

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Speaker 1: I mean important to point out, like I said earlier,

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Speaker 1: John TAMMERHITTI and the party deny all allegations. So far

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Speaker 1: they haven't made other public comments. But would it also

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Speaker 1: be in the interests of those parties, given they claim

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Speaker 1: they are innocent of any wrongdoing in this case, to

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Speaker 1: also have the illumination that might come with the Privacy

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Speaker 1: Commissioner overseeing an inquiry.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I think that their risks being the

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Speaker 2: perception of something being political or perhaps the official is

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Speaker 2: not wanting to get to the bottom of it. If

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Speaker 2: it has been this degree of this is all too

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Speaker 2: hard to go away. I think that is in everyone's interest,

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Speaker 2: including John Tammerherry, that the Maori Party and the associated

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Speaker 2: entities to have the independence and clarity that I think,

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Speaker 2: as I say, only a public inquiry or the Privacy

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Speaker 2: Commissioner can provide. And I think that given the and

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Speaker 2: probably rightly the unwillingness of the government to set up

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Speaker 2: an inquiry when it involves a party in the opposition

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Speaker 2: or an opposition party, I think again all roads of

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Speaker 2: the back to the Privacy Commissioner's office and this being

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Speaker 2: the appropriate circumstances for him to launcher an investigation.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for your time this evening. That is Jordan Williams,

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Speaker 1: the executive director of the Taxpayers Union. For more from

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Speaker 1: Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd

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Speaker 1: be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.