Stats NZ defends positive spin
Statistics NZ said its reports on building consents are not biased.
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The government statistician, Geoff Bascand said he is “fiercely protective of my statutory independence”.
Mr Bascandl was responding to questions about the neutrality of a recent Statistics NZ media statement concerning building consents.
Labour’s Building and Construction spokesperson Phil Twyford yesterday said that there was a large slump in consents in September this year compared to September last year.
Seasonally adjusted figures fell 17%, including apartments, and fell 14% when apartments are excluded - but the headline on the Statistics NZ press release said “Trends for new home approvals continue to rise”.
“Talk about spin!” Mr Twyford said in a media statement.
“It is impossible not to see a lack of neutrality."
Mr Bascand said the department takes its responsibility seriously to explain and present statistics in a meaningful and accurate way.
“In this case, volatility over the past months meant that in our judgment, the trend series provided the most useful indicator of movements in building activity,” Mr Bascand said.
The row arose after an article in NBR NZPI this week highlighted the positive spin Statistics NZ was placing on the slump in September consents.
The article quoted Karen MacKenzie, statistical analyst at Statistics NZ.
“We have decided to emphasise the trend in the September release as it shows the long term picture for building consents, whereas if we had just emphasised the decrease in the seasonally adjusted and actual figures, some users may think the figures look worse than the actuality - when really the long term picture shown by the trend is more of a positive picture,” she said.
The trend line is available on the Statistics NZ web site. It shows a slump bottoming out in 2009, rising and then falling back in 2010, and gradually recovering in the early months of this year but only just ahead of 2009 levels.
Chris Hutching
Wed, 09 Nov 2011
Wed, 09 Nov 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
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Stats NZ defends positive spin
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