Economy, tax cuts at top of National's list

John Key. Photo / Richard Robinson

Prime Minister-elect John Key appears likely to have little trouble pushing through National's election promises - although the emissions trading scheme could be a test of his leadership.

The make-up of the new Parliament after Saturday's election means Mr Key can govern needing only Act's support.

The two parties have broadly similar attitudes toward law and order and on containing the bureaucracy, which are areas National has prioritised for early action.

National also intends to pass legislation before Christmas to implement another round of tax cuts on April 1 and it is highly likely to have enough support to do this.

Mr Key yesterday said that how much could be done ahead of Christmas depended on when Parliament could be reconvened, but he was keen to get as much done as possible.

Passing tax cut legislation, getting transitional support into place for people who lose their jobs in the looming economic turmoil, and putting in place a 52-week course of breast cancer drug Herceptin were top of the list.

National would also try to get first readings under way for some of its law and order legislation.

However, the economy is likely to dominate the early days of the new National-led Government, and Mr Key and Finance Minister-in-waiting Bill English have already requested briefings mid-week from the Reserve Bank and Treasury.

"We see the economy as front and centre stage of the issues that we face," Mr Key said yesterday.

Asked if he could keep his election promises, he was confident he would despite deterioration in the Government's books as the global financial crisis fallout spread.

"Our campaign promises were fully costed and fully funded," Mr Key said. "It is our intention to have a new spending component of $1.75 billion, I believe that all the promises we made during the campaign will fit within that."

National will go to work early on identifying savings in the public service by calling chief executives to a meeting and instructing them to begin a line-by-line review of spending.

The potential sticking point in Mr Key's agenda could be the reworking of the emissions trading scheme, a flagship Labour policy which Act has strong opposed.