What you see is not what you will get

By VERNON SMALL

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but not, it seems, if it is in a Government document.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen was yesterday forced to disown an illustration in the Prime Minister's strategic booklet "Growing an innovative New Zealand" - known as Gainz - which showed New Zealand aiming for the top half of the OECD by 2011.

"The Government does not have a target date for reaching the top half of the OECD. The text of the Gainz document, which was cleared by ministers, did not have any reference to a target date," Dr Cullen said.

He said the picture was taken from a Boston Consulting Group paper.

"The illustrations were not cleared by ministers."

He said the Government did not have a target date because there were too many variables, including the rate of growth in other countries and changes in their populations.

His explanation prompted Act leader Richard Prebble to ask whether the picture of Prime Minister Helen Clark in the document was actually her.

"An airbrush job," New Zealand First leader Winston Peters interjected.

Earlier, Dr Cullen said he would unveil his election-year Budget on May 23. He said the economy was coming through the post-September 11 turbulence better than many commentators had expected.

The Budget operating balance was marginally higher than forecast in December. Tax revenues and the surpluses reported by state-owned enterprises were ahead of forecast.

The mid-point growth rate of 3.1 per cent, predicted by the Treasury for the March year, was likely to be achieved.

It seemed the economy in the United States was not going to pick up this year, but would not suffer a bad recession. The biggest threat appeared to be a worsening in Japan's economy.

Dr Cullen said a tax holiday for new residents, recommended in last year's McLeod tax review, was "a much more interesting idea" to attract foreign investment than placing a $1 million annual cap on personal tax payments.

The McLeod review said those with no previous link to this country should be taxed only on New Zealand-sourced income for seven years once they became residents.