Te Pati Māori is facing mounting investigations into whether it has misused census data and information collected from people who had COVID vaccinations for electioneering, with the Office for the Privacy Commissioner confirming it has been notified.
The commissioner's office joins the Electoral Commission, police and Stats NZ who are now all investigating complaints.
On Wednesday, it was revealed a complaint had been laid about campaign texts sent by the Waipareira Trust, which is run by Te Pati Māori president John Tamihere.
The complaints centre around Te Pati Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp, who won her Tāmaki Makaurau seat in Parliament by just 42 votes.
Before being elected, Kemp was the chief executive of Manurewa Marae, which ran a massive census drive.
Employment advocate Allan Hulse is representing six former marae staff and one Ministry of Social Development (MSD) worker - a number have made complaints, one with the police - saying the census data was used for Te Pati Māori campaigning.
"We know upwards of 1400 census forms were photocopied and then that data was put, as I said, into the database that we believe was owned by Waipareira Trust," Hulse said.
The allegations - which are strongly rejected by the party - were first revealed in the Sunday Star Times.
"The second stage involved staff assisting people to transfer from the general to the Māori roll and they believe that information was obtained from the census form," Hulse told Newshub.
Stats NZ is investigating the complaint and said it took the accusations of the inappropriate use of census data very seriously. It has appointed an external investigator - Doug Craig of the RDC Group.
Craig's terms of reference are being finalised and the findings of his investigation will be shared with the police who are also investigating, said Stats NZ.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has also confirmed to Newshub it was notified on Wednsday of a potential privacy breach relating to the census.
"We will continue to engage with them as they work through their investigation.
"Given the public interest in the issues reported in the media we are asking the various agencies concerned for further information to inform our next steps."
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour called the allegations "deeply concerning because first of all reliable statistics are critical to New Zealand".
"I think depending on what they find it may be right for a ministerial or some other kind of official inquiry."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is on a trip to the Pacific but told media it would be inappropriate to comment while the investigation is underway.
"They're pretty concerning allegations and serious allegations. It's right that there is an investigation underway, as I understand it," he said.
It was also revealed a different complaint has been referred to police, which Newshub has seen.
The complaint was laid by Labour and alleges a phone number it believes is owned by the Waipareira Trust sent campaign texts for Te Pati Māori without a promotor statement.
The complaint also claims the texts were sent to phone numbers the trust collected during a COVID vaccination programme.
The texts said: "Kia ora whānau. Support your whakapapa and support a better Aotearoa. Two Ticks Te Pati Māori."
And: "Keep your whānau fed with an extra EIGHT weeks of kai when we remove GST off food. Two ticks Te Pati Māori to make the difference."
Newshub attempted to contact Tamihere on Wednesday but he did not respond.
Te Pati Māori issued a statement on Tuesday night saying Tarsh Kemp would stay on and had the full support of the party.
They said "the allegations are baseless and simply untrue" and the party welcomed an investigation.
Hulse said the former marae staff wanted a full external investigation.
"I believe that [Tamihere] knows that allegations are entitled to be made and that allegations should be investigated."
