Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3137. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement in relation to achieving a surplus that it is like “landing a 747 on a pinhead”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes because history shows that fiscal forecasts and out-turn move around quite substantially. For example in Budget 2008 the then Minister of Finance was forecasting a $1.3 billion operating balance before gains and losses surplus in 2008-09. As it turned out he left the Government books in deficit by $3.9 billion that year and Treasury told us that we faced never-ending deficits under the previous Government’s policies. So yes forecasts can move around a lot but this Government is making good progress on fixing up the hash of it that Labour made.Andrew Little: Why is he trying to minimise the importance of achieving a surplus this year when he has made it a core part of his Government’s credibility for the past 4 years; why can he not just admit he has failed?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: We are not trying to minimise it. We are pointing out that there are a number of factors that make it a little bit trickier—and that is for instance that inflation is so much lower which is great for consumers and that there are a number of areas where there has been a re-evaluation by Treasury. But if we just take a step back for a moment and say that in 2011 what the deficit was the answer was $18.4 billion. The Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update forecast for this year’s deficit is $585 million. I will point out that every single attempt to either raise revenue or cut expenditure by this Government has been opposed by the Labour Opposition.Andrew Little: Does he accept that he would now likely be on track to surplus if his Government had not spent $36000 on sending Ministers to Northland had not wasted tens of millions of dollars on Novopay had not lost hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends due to the asset sales and was not blowing the Budget on everything from charter schools to Inland Revenue Department computers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No. I will point out that Novopay was something that came along under the previous Labour Government. When it comes to the hundreds of millions of—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear the answer with that sort of noise.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: When it comes to the hundreds of millions of dollars more that we might have got under the mixed-ownership model that was money that was literally blown by the reckless policies of Labour so firmly rejected by the New Zealand public.Andrew Little: Why does he say that low inflation is to blame for his failure to reach surplus when low inflation saves the Government money just as it saves the taxpayers from paying more tax; why does he always greet failure with excuses rather than fronting up?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I am hugely fearful that the Leader of the Opposition is getting his economic advice from Grant Robertson. He needs to go and read a decent speech on economics and he would see one from the Minister of Finance where he quite accurately pointed out that because of lower inflation over the next 4 years the Government’s revenue will be $15 billion less and the tax revenue the Crown receives will be $4.5 billion less. Low inflation is great for consumers great for business; it just ain’t great for Government revenue.Andrew Little: When will he admit that his Government acting as a bystander at the dairy auctions rather than building a more diverse economy is the real reason his economic promises are falling away as fast as the milk price?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not know whether I misinterpreted the question from the Leader of the Opposition but he seems to be saying that the Government should be in there buying milk powder in the auction. If he is that is an interesting use of Government resources.