Norman and his dagger centre stage

Russel Norman. File photo / Mark Mitchell

Two sleeps to go, Labour leader Phil Goff said yesterday to those asking about Labour's capital gains tax policy.

With time suspended, Question Time was almost dull enough to bring on one of those two sleeps.

Then along came Green co-leader Russel Norman. While Labour was effectively gagged from talking about the tax until tomorrow, the Greens had no such restrictions.

He had noted John Key's rather dramatic description that such a tax would put "a dagger through the heart of growth".

So Dr Norman stood and listed organisations that had advocated a capital gains tax: the OECD, Treasury, the Capital Market Development Taskforce. For each, he asked with melodrama worthy of a Greek tragic hero if that organisation wanted to "put a dagger through the heart of the economy".

The anticipation and roars of appreciation at his performance prompted Labour's David Cunliffe to introduce Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1: Mr Key's dagger through the heart of the economy was simply "a dagger of the mind, a false creation".

Mr Key tried first to explain that the capital gains tax such groups advocated was more comprehensive than that apparently to be proposed by Labour and included the family home.

He tried to tell them capital gains taxes across the board would stifle growth, but a capital gains tax with multiple exemptions would mean people spent more time trying to dodge tax than earning money to tax. Alas, nobody was listening.

For Dr Norman was standing again. He asked - all mock innocence - whether the Prime Minister had noticed that the Australian economy had outperformed the New Zealand economy every year since 1985 - the very year Australia introduced its capital gains tax.

Mr Key moved on to a lengthy soliloquy about the differences between Australia and New Zealand until Labour's Clayton Cosgrove interrupted, observing such a lengthy answer must be record-breaking.

The Speaker mused before concluding he was powerless in the face of such drama.

"The House has its own life and there is no way I can stop it; it wants to live its own life."

But Dr Norman was to discover life as a Greek hero usually ends in a cruel, untimely fashion. He rose one last time for a killing blow, only to be told by the Speaker that he had run out of questions.