Its budget day in New Zealand and the third term Labour Government is struggling in the polls, and there are widespread calls for tax cuts, pushed by an opposition hungry for power after nine years in the political wilderness.
The Minister of Finance, Michael Cullen, has to juggle between appeasing the wider electorate's expectations of tax cuts, and a balance of responsible economic management. It is his ninth budget and finally he will have to give some tax cuts which have not been his part of his economic management previously; he has targeted assistance to where he believed it was needed, after the billions of dollars needed in health, education and the social area. The proverbial cat has nine lives; has Michael Cullen run out of lives?
Will it be enough to appease a struggling electorate, or will the beating drums for change prove too strong and a right of centre administration be returned in six months time? Only time will tell the tale here.
Budget Story
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