Labour's engine room...how the front bench is performing

Michael Cullen

Made the understandable mistake of thinking fiscal caution was what voters still want. They instead saw an unnecessarily huge surplus in his latest Budget, and no shortage of other politicians willing to hand them back their money.

Cullen's savings-focused Budget was designed to reinforce his legacy as finance minister: that younger generations are not left to carry the financial can for spendthrift, ageing baby-boomers. Cullen has refused to contemplate substantial and immediate income tax cuts because he believes they amount to intergenerational theft.

However, long-term foresight would always struggle to compete against demands for cash in pocket now. Rather than accept the electorate's sudden switch in favour of tax cuts, Cullen fought it and has consequently lost the political argument.

The frustration was evident in the return of the bitterly sarcastic Cullen of old. He has now recovered his composure but the man who turned in a maestro performance last year in keeping the Labour caucus together over the foreshore and seabed and preserving the Government's majority, would no longer be dead cert for Labour's top job.

His legacy to Labour may be a Budget already being catalogued alongside Arnold Nordmeyer's infamous 1958 "black" version. But then it was Cullen who once said Budgets do not win elections, they only lose them.

Steve Maharey

Has been through difficult times - with a mixed performance the result. Having recovered from the personal tragedy of his wife's death, Maharey has been hurt personally and politically by John Tamihere's "smarmy" tag because, at times, he can sound unintentionally patronising.

His reputation has also been dented by the waste of public funds on sub-degree tertiary courses and the failings of his Tertiary Education Commission to police the sector.

However, as Social Development Minister, he has presided over historic low unemployment levels. He delivered the hugely complex Working For Families package, a key element in Labour's re-election strategy.

He is also tackling welfare reform, though more gently than Don Brash would decree.

Maharey conveys an image of reasonableness which makes him one of Labour's more effective communicators. It falls on him to portray Labour's targeted income assistance to families as a virtue and National's tax cuts as a vice. Not easy.

Phil Goff

Clark must regret not handing George Hawkins' Police portfolio to her Justice Minister in last December's Cabinet reshuffle. Ignoring the furore over legislation reducing the age of consent, Goff is probably the Cabinet's safest pair of hands. He has the added ability of making big problems look small.

National has outflanked him on law and order, which is not Goff's fault. His punitive streak has stretched the centre-left Government as far to the right as it could tolerate. But the law and order bidding war has shifted elsewhere. Opposition parties have found richer pickings in the Police portfolio and left Goff alone. As Foreign Minister, Goff willingly trod on diplomatic toes to tar Don Brash with his "gone by lunchtime" blooper. Odds on Goff becoming Labour's next leader must have shortened as others around him have stumbled.

Annette King

The absence of health from the five core policies which National has chosen to contrast itself from Labour says it all.

That is a tribute to King's six-year tenure in one of the most difficult portfolios but she has been helped by Clark's awareness of how quickly the Beehive is blamed for a failure in patient treatment.

The portfolio has been deluged with funding to ease pressure points, be they nurses' pay or waiting times for operations, particularly those treating conditions which strike the elderly. Opposition attempts to show waiting times have been lengthening have failed to gain traction, while National's attack has been handicapped by revolving doors of spokespeople and absence of policy. The big question is what job King will do next.

Jim Sutton

Good on foot-and-mouth - not so good at keeping foot out of mouth. Sutton looked churlish in condemning WTO ambassador Tim Groser as unpatriotic for quitting trade politics for traditional politics. The Agriculture Minister followed that by clashing with protesters at Parliament over public access to farm waterways. The television cameras conveyed the image of a government no longer listening.

Such lapses have clouded an otherwise solid, but unspectacular performance in the Overseas Trade and Agriculture portfolios, most recently typified by his handling of the foot-and-mouth hoax. However, with Damien O'Connor waiting in the wings , Sutton is a prime candidate to lose his Cabinet ranking to make room for new blood.

Trevor Mallard

Kicked off Labour's so-far awful year with the bungle over NCEA scholarship exams, rivalling his abandoned campaign for school closures in political damage. However, Mallard couples long experience in Parliament with innate political nous which makes him indispensable to Clark as a sounding board. He is naturally left-leaning, but has a Tamihere-like compatibility with blue-collar conservatives. Mallard does the tricky jobs no one else wants - such as reviewing separate funding for Maori within the bureaucracy as Race Relations Minister.

He is the classic "attack politician" whom every party needs to go over the top and let loose the first shots in an argument and draw the enemy's fire. However, his tactical astuteness occasionally takes a back seat to sudden rushes of blood to the head which land him in trouble.

Pete Hodgson

He is politically smart, capable, versatile, pragmatic and gritty. And, like Mallard, he is occasionally accident-prone. The election will not be won or lost over the $1 billion blunder over Kyoto carbon credits, but is indicative of how embarrassing errors infect the upper tier of the Cabinet.

Hodgson's general competence has seen him allotted an assortment of unconnected portfolios, including Energy, Fisheries, Science and Transport and Commerce. He has never held one of the truly prized portfolios, but may be the next Minister of Health. Can get too caught up in the detail of his portfolios, rather than the big picture but he could be used more to front for the Government.

Ups

* Public Health Organisations
* Working for Families
* Workplace savings scheme
* Extracting Israeli apology
* Nurses' pay

Downs

* Farm flatulence tax
* Land access plans
* School mergers
* Transpower pylons
* Aqua power project