KEY POINTS:
Well, the great anticipated tax cut bonanza promised by National turned into a damp squib, didn't it?
National's been promising us for ages every worker would get a huge tax cut.
But you didn't have to be Einstein to work out Labour would always ensure it would pay for its promises first then leave the cupboard bare.
When the Treasury books were opened last week, there was, unsurprisingly, no money left in the coffers to pay for National's promised largesse. It seems our country will be running an annual deficit of some billions for the foreseeable future.
Given the world financial crisis, John Key's earlier announcements that National might consider borrowing money to pay for tax cuts would now be electoral suicide if it tried now.
With world capitalism in freefall, any extravagance by Key will have Labour reminding the voters he is up to the same tricks he learned as a futures gambler with the now-troubled bank, Merrill Lynch.
What New Zealanders are looking for at present is conservative and prudent husbandry of the country's finances. Certainly not an electoral lolly scramble paid on our credit card.
I'm sure Key and his advisers know this, but they also can't backtrack on their promise to have a much bigger tax cut than Labour.
Predictably, they've pinched it from somewhere else.
This is what Labour was hoping they'd do. The two pots of gold National has gone after have been the research and development business innovation fund and KiwiSaver.
As a party promoting its business credentials, it takes deep cynicism for National to cut these two budgets. The impact of the first is it will limit our future ability to compete in the ever-increasing global market.
The second will limit the money we'll have on hand to invest in these future businesses.
But then National's decision to find the money to pay for its promised tax cuts has nothing to do with responsible financial management. It's about short-term electoral expediency.
National deputy leader Bill English summed it up well when he was secretly recorded as saying "nothing beats winning in politics, despite all our highly principled statements ... Do what we need to: win."
That comment accurately describes the Nats' strategic motivation on this matter. It ain't pretty, but it's honest.
In essence, National has merely swapped money earmarked for investing in the country's future and has promised it as a tax cut to get elected.
Under National's new policy, almost all of the 800,000 people enrolled in KiwiSaver will have their tax credits and Government subsidies halved.
In addition, these savers will be hit again as their employers will pay only a 2 per cent subsidy rather than a 4 per cent contribution in a couple of years' time.
Reducing an employer's payroll bill by 2 per cent compensates the business community for the loss of research and development money.
National's decision is good politics, at least in the short term. However Labour can now justifiably argue the net value of National's tax cuts is pretty much the same overall value as Labour's tax cuts.
It gives Labour an election opportunity that wasn't there until now. I'm sure it can't believe its good fortune and will hope National's opportunism becomes an election campaign game-changer.
Labour needs something at present. National has a big lead in the polls. It's still difficult to see how this can change dramatically before election day.
But National's actions might just give Labour a glimmer of hope.
After all, things aren't looking good for Labour at present. Even Labour's most loyal allies, the Greens, are trying to convince us they could form a government with National.
The days of Labour's other ally, Winston Peters, are numbered. The poll ratings for New Zealand First aren't moving and unless they can get somewhere near 4 per cent in the next fortnight, they're history.
Unfortunately for Labour, Key has taken a leaf out of Clark's campaign book. National is careful in presenting a moderate face and offering very little controversial policy.
Ironically, Clark's winning strategy is now being played against her. The only way that Clark will keep her job is by Labour shaking up the electorate somehow.
It could do this by convincing the hundreds of thousands of KiwiSaver account holders that Key is stealing their money and using it to give a tax cut to everyone else.
This group makes up more than a third of the entire voting population. I'm sure nearly all of them vote, too.
If just one out out of eight of the KiwiSavers felt threatened enough to swap sides in the next two weeks the double-digit gap between the two main parties would close to within a margin of error.
And that would change the election game big-time.
I know it's a long shot, but stranger things have happened in politics.
