15 Aug 2019

Stats minister fires back at Bridges over census comments

From Morning Report, 6:39 am on 15 August 2019

Statistics Minister James Shaw has fired a blistering broadside at opposition leader Simon Bridges, accusing him of undermining public confidence in statistics in a burn-the-house-down approach to politics.

This comes in response to Mr Bridges questioning the credibility of figures produced by Statistics NZ after a series of mistakes by the department - including the 2018 census botch-up.

RNZ deputy political editor Craig McCulloch reports.