We stand behind our record

IT IS pretty hard to write a column before the Budget is presented that will be printed the day after it is released - as I am doing five hours before Finance Minister Bill English does his thing here in Parliament.

The debate, if you can call it that, here has been hot and loud - and even the odd "f" word has been thrown into the mix, the clarity of which was most obvious in viewing the sign language translator on the television monitor.

Hand gestures are the truly international language.

The chief accusation against the Government from opposition parties is that it promised there would be a surplus this year and there doesn't appear to be one.

Oppositions apply the word "promise" to every forecast and, with it, apply malice if the expectation is unfulfilled, regardless of the options or resources the Government had to meet that expectation.

It is like a farmer hit by a drought.

His or her income is down because it didn't rain, so the grass didn't grow and the stock didn't finish or produce milk ready for sale.

The Government relies on income, mainly from growing stuff. In our case, about 25 per cent of gross national product comes from dairying and if that takes a 50 per cent hit on world markets, then taxable income goes down markedly.

If that coincides with other commodity price reductions like in energy - fourth biggest income earner for the government - then the public purse gets a second thump, and so on.

Despite that, or to guard against it, are the strategies a government takes in order to flatten out the bumps in an economy to ensure things run as smoothly as possible for the country.

Predictability and certainty are the best way to encourage people to expand businesses and create jobs.

The Government creates an environment which stimulates that confidence and it is private citizens who then make decisions to employ more staff, grow productivity and so more tax gets paid.

The National Government's record recently is 94,000 new jobs created since the start of 2011, which equates to around 120 new jobs every day, and we've turned the nation's books around - the deficit peaked at $18.4 billion in 2011 and now we're expected to be back in surplus next year, a year later than the target we set in 2011 but we'll still be one of the first developed countries to be back in surplus after the global financial crisis.

So the Government says this will be the type of Budget a responsible government can deliver when it's following a plan that's working.

Budget 2015 will contain $1 billion in new spending.

It continues to support New Zealanders and help families while responsibly managing the growing economy and the government finances. Hopefully, this provides the certainty that I referred to above.

So we will continue building on what we've put in place to address the drivers of hardship. This approach is working " there are now 42,000 fewer children in benefit-dependent families than three years ago.

So our spending will make a difference to those who receive it while, at the same time, we respect the taxpayers who pay for it.

The Government doesn't have any money of its own.

It largely gets money from taxation, and royalties, and how it spends that money on your behalf is critical.