Inside Parliament: Large-scale compulsory airbag recall hits NZ but 'why on earth did it take so long?'

This week on the Inside Parliament podcast Political Editor Jessica Mutch and Political Reporter Katie Bradford look at the large-scale airbag recall that has hit New Zealand.

Consumer Affairs Minister, Kris Faafoi said hundreds of thousands of vehicles on New Zealand roads have a potentially-dangerous airbag unit.

The compulsory recall affects 50,000 Takata airbag units installed in numerous car makes and models, with the units possibly exploding due to high humidity - but the risk of them doing so in New Zealand is extremely low.

Chief executive David Crawford said, "logistically it is a challenge - but we've been managing this recall on a voluntary basis for the last 2-3 years and not making as much progress as we wanted".

"The alpha-type [airbag] is just too risky to leave in the cars and the longer they are there the more risky they become."

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