KEY POINTS:
A summary of Finance Minister Michael Cullen's last eight budgets and their context.
2000
The Labour/Alliance coalition roars into action reforming employment law, renationalising ACC, creating a new $60,000 tax bracket, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and Kiwibank.
With most policy well announced, Dr Cullen's first budget is relatively quiet, he describes it as "fiscal finger food - enough to whet and curb an appetite but not to sate a roaring hunger".
Modest surpluses are predicted as money is ploughed into health and education.
It heralds a winter of discontent from the business sector with some threatening a capital strike, Labour rides it out by delaying some employment law reform.
2001
Dr Cullen issues a self-declared boring budget warning of tough times ahead.
Extra money is poured into health.
Four months after the budget, the world is shaken up by the September 11 terrorist attacks.
There are more predictions of economic gloom and the Government bails out Air New Zealand.
Despite the fears, there is a rush of money into New Zealand as returning ex-pats and new immigrants fuel the economy.
2002
Dr Cullen's third budget pumps more money into health and education, but very little else.
It is overshadowed by the ongoing implosion of Labour's coalition partner - The Alliance - due to internal divisions over the invasion of Afghanistan.
Treasury predicts modest surpluses.
Shortly after the budget Prime Minister Helen Clark calls a snap election and waltzes home to form a minority government with United Future's support.
By the end of the year, Treasury says its predictions about the economy are wrong, and revenue and surpluses will be much larger than expected.
2003
Dr Cullen's fourth budget is a modest affair with most attention on him defending a swelling surplus.
There is a boost in spending for health and education.
Dr Cullen defends his cautious approach saying he has to prepare for a slowing economy, but he does foreshadow what will become known as the Working for Families package.
By the end of the year, Treasury's fear of economic bad times disappear and Dr Cullen announces the extra money will be used to boost family assistance.
2004
The Working for Families package is revealed as the centrepiece of Dr Cullen's fifth budget, promising $3 billion over three years for working families earning up to $80,000.
Despite more new spending of $2.4b, with significant funding boosts for education, health and welfare, Dr Cullen is still able to forecast a surplus of $5.7b.
In the budget, Treasury predicts growth will slow.
They are wrong and by the end of the year, Dr Cullen says stronger than expected growth will allow him to spend even more on health.
With election year approaching, Dr Cullen says there is no room for tax cuts as a hard economic slowdown is coming.
2005
Dr Cullen's sixth budget provokes a backlash after some people's hopes of a tax cut turn out to be a promise to lift tax thresholds in 2008.
He unveils a work-based saving scheme - KiwiSaver - to come into effect in 2007, on top of spending increases for health and education.
Treasury predicts a $7.4b surplus for the end of the year but says the economy will soon slow.
In the run-up to the September election, Dr Cullen finds more money for Working for Families and interest free student loans.
Labour forms a new minority Government by the slimmest of margins.
In December, Treasury says the economy is doing better than expected but warns the worst economic doldrums since the 1998 Asian Crisis are near.
They are wrong again.
2006
Dr Cullen's seventh budget marks out the "biggest road-building programme this country has seen" and delivers on election promises over student loans and even more money for the "working for families" policy.
The impact of the budget is diluted ahead of its delivery after the leak of plans to regulate Telecom.
Treasury reports an $8.5b surplus but warns this will fall as the economy slows. They are wrong again as the economy grows and the surplus expands.
2007
Dr Cullen makes KiwiSaver even more attractive by ramping up the incentives to save and the company tax rate is cut.
However he dumps plans to raise tax thresholds saying they are unaffordable and declares that since every one mocked them, then they were not worth doing.
Treasury warns of bad times ahead and finally after seven years of predicting economic gloom, they get it right.
- NZPA
