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MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
Education Minister Jan Tinetti is in hot water. (File photo)
Education Minister Jan Tinetti was a given a formal warning by police over a social media post encouraging people to vote for her in the Tauranga by-election in June 2022.
But National Party leader Christopher Luxon is questioning why the formal warning wasn’t made public sooner.
“She was a cabinet minister at the time. We need to know why she didn’t tell the public, whether she told the prime minister and whether [Prime Minister] Chris Hipkins knew about it when he promoted her,” he said.
The Facebook post, which was published on Tinetti’s Facebook account on the last day of voting, read: “#vote, #Tinetti for Tauranga [sic]”.
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Under electoral law, candidates and parties can not campaign on polling day, including social media posts.
The Electoral Commission contacted the Labour Party about the post at the time, and it was taken down.
Robert Kitchin/Stuff
Education minister Jan Tinetti erroneously said she wasn’t responsible for attendance data. (File photo)
Tinetti said she was made aware of the Facebook post within an hour of it being made.
“I removed it as soon as I saw it. I apologised at the time and have taken steps to prevent it happening again.”
A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said it was only one of three referrals it made to police in about social media content on election day.
Tinetti is also under pressure after being referred to Parliament’s Privileges Committee by the Speaker of the House. She could be found in contempt of Parliament after she failed to correct a false statement she made in the House quickly enough.
Tinetti in February said she had no responsibility for the release of attendance data. Later that day, her staff told her that was incorrect information.
However, she did not correct the record until early May. As a result, Speaker Adrian Rurawhe said the matter was being referred to the privileges committee.
Rurawhe said Tinetti had claimed not to know she needed to correct the record until he sent her a letter.
An MP hasn’t been found in contempt of Parliament in more than a decade. The most recent one was Winston Peters.
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