31 May 2019

Budget breach not illegal, but Peters won't apologise

From Morning Report, 8:20 am on 31 May 2019

The State Services Commission is considering what action to take about allegations the Treasury Secretary misled the Finance Minister. National released sensitive Budget details earlier this week and the Treasury first claimed it was a result of a hack. On Thursday morning, the Treasury confirmed the police won't be investigating the breach as it wasn't a hack, but simply an IT blunder on its website. The National leader, Simon Bridges, has demanded the resignations of the Finance Minister, Grant Robertson, and the Treasury head, Gabriel Makhlouf. But the deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters isn't backing down from his accusations the National Party obtained the Budget information illegally. Political reporter Jo Moir spoke to Mr Peters and he starts by anwering why he won't apologise to Mr Bridges when Treasury has said the Budget information wasn't obtained illegally.