Will it make $10b?

When the surplus was approaching $5b I remember debating with Labourits whether this was sufficient to allow tax relief. They insisted that somehow $5b was not enough.

I suspected that they actually have an ideological hatred of giving NZers any of their tax money back, so I started asking them at what level of surplus would they agree we could afford tax cuts. They would look nervous and refuse to say.

So then I would pluck a ridiculously high figure out of the air and say, well what if one day incredibly the surplus was $10b, would you then agree one could afford some tax cuts? They’d look nervous at this, but usually agree that yeah it is hard to argue a $10b surplus in a $50b government is too small to allow tax cuts.

Yesterday Treasury announced the four month surplus is a massive $3b, suggesting the full year surplus could get close to $10b.

I look forward to Labourites soon saying that $10b is still too small a surplus and that in fact they meant $20b surplus before they would agree to tax cuts.

Of course I suspect that the surplus could even by $50b and some of them would never agree that it is fair to reduce taxes on those who pay them. Because at the end of the day they just don’t believe that much in private property!