Simeon Brown takes on media spin over health worker survey

Summarised by Centrist

New Health Minister Simeon Brown pushed back against questionable media coverage of a Public Service Association (PSA) survey on health worker stress. 

While Christopher Luxon chuckled in the background, Brown called out the press gallery for reporting partisan distortions designed to embarrass the government.

The survey, led by PSA head Fleur Fitzsimmons—a former Labour candidate who lost Wellington’s Rongotai seat to the Greens—was sent to 90,000 health workers. Just 1,300 responded, and 85% of those reported feeling stressed. 

The media framed this as “85% of frontline health workers say they are stressed by staff shortages,” conveniently omitting that 98.5% of workers didn’t even bother responding.

Brown didn’t let the distortion slide, pointing out Fitzsimmons’ Labour ties and questioning the survey’s credibility, exposing the press for failing to provide context. 

Read more over at The Redbaiter on X

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