Budget 09: Key - All praise to Bill, hero of the day

Bill English stood and looked up at his family sitting above in the public gallery, his children freshly collected from school to watch Dad dole out billions of dollars.

In front of him was a less pleasing sight - Labour, most of its MPs sitting with prunish lips and highlighters busy as they flicked through the Budget checking which of their pet projects were being dismantled to fund the new pet projects of National.

The first half went quietly enough. The good news came first - funding for probation officers, hospitals, police and school buildings.

There was the canned applause from the Government benches at predictable points and a loud roar of self-mocking applause for the cycleway. The lucky few ministers who actually got something out of the Budget nodded virtuously as their wins were read out.

Then came the bad news. By then Labour was done with highlighting.

The first big roar came at the news the Government contributions to the Superannuation Fund would be halted.

"Shame! Leave it to your kids!" David Cunliffe shouted, apparently oblivious to the English family gathering above his head where startled children were looking nervously at their mother. The jeering mounted again when the news hit that, yes, those tax cuts were gone.

When Mr English was done, Labour leader Phil Goff stood. It took only two minutes of wrath before his face went a florid red and a vein in his forehead started popping.

What enraged him was the "broken promises" of the Budget - tax cuts gone and the elderly of the future left stranded by stopping the Super fund contributions.

The Budget was "Standard but Poor" - a bid to "placate and grovel" to international credit agencies while ignoring jobs and slashing and burning policies as food-bank queues grew.

Prime Minister John Key was having none of that. He had a new nickname for Mr Goff - "whack it on the bill Phil" - and for Labour, "the credit card Opposition".

"Whack it on the bill Phil would have seen us run up a quarter of a trillion of dollars of debt by 2023."

The barracking rendered Mr Key inaudible. But he also savaged Labour's Mr Cunliffe before shamelessly flattering Health Minister Tony Ryall, Justice Minister Simon Power, then his support parties, and on to Police Minister Judith Collins.

He ended by pointing out how lucky New Zealand was to have a Finance Minister such as Bill English who could do wondrous things like deliver a cycleway - "so much joy for $50 million!" - while simultaneously making sure pensioners were no worse off and avoiding credit rating downgrades.

"New Zealanders will go to bed tonight saying 'thank goodness for that little town Dipton and the young man they produced all those 47 years ago: Bill English'."