'Slow Punch and no Judy' Budget does it for Nats

National finance spokesman John Key labelled the Budget "slow Punch and no Judy" and is now on the road with leader Don Brash to promote what the duo claim is the real show in town.

They began their sales job yesterday in Auckland and will holddaily breakfast or lunch talks across the country on the Budget duringthe parliamentary recess nextweek.

It is the first big double act by the pair National insiders have dubbed "Team Finance" and it will lay the ground for the launch of the party's most critical policy - tax cuts.

There will be slides, graphs and plenty of figures to bolster their case, and their different styles and personalities should be complementary.

Mr Key is boyish, extremely eager to spread his message and quick on his feet when it comes to an impromptu debate.

Dr Brash is reassuringly older with an impressive career, but accused of being a little wooden.

They are counting on their combined financial experience - the millionaire investment banker and the former Reserve Bank Governor - to enhance National's credibility and poll ratings heading into the election campaign.

They are up against Helen Clark and Michael Cullen who, unlike Team Finance - or Don-Key as they are nicknamed by Beehive wits - have years of parliamentary experience and are perceived to have created a near duopoly on power.

But National MPs woke in good heart yesterday, hailing the Budget as good - "good for National".

Mr Key argues it has sullied Dr Cullen's reputation, suggesting he was forced to prostitute himself on tax threshold cuts by his colleagues.

The suggestion is that the miserly offerings only exposed the Finance Minister to ridicule - a rare event Opposition MPs find almost impossible to achieve themselves.

Statistics New Zealand data released yesterday showing that the net outflow of permanent and long-term departures to Australia has risen to 18,200 in the April 2005 year, compared with 11,400 the year before, will also benefit National.

Party strategists long ago abandoned OECD economic comparisons in favour of the much more tangible Australian ones and will make the transtasman income gap a key justification for its tax cut plans.

Dr Cullen and Helen Clark began their own roadshows yesterday and with other Government MPs will be out promoting their Budget next week.

The Finance Minister is annoyed that the tax thresholds have dominated coverage.