Taxpayers will be stuck with 84 per cent of NZ's Kyoto Protocol bill, while farmers and industrial emitters get hefty subsidies, a study says.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is on track to meet its performance targets.

Investment returns from the Cullen Fund and ACC have rescued the Crown's bottom line in the first three months of the fiscal year.

The scariest part of the long-term fiscal projections the Treasury released last week is the discussion of health-care costs, writes Brian Fallow.

Recoveries in the investment performance of the ACC and New Zealand Superannuation Fund portfolios have helped offset a dramatic fall in the tax take over the past three months, says Treasury.

KiwiSaver, which now has 1,189,597 contributing members, is a huge success.

Treasury warns that if serious consideration is not given to pegging the costs of superannuation, other public services will suffer.

Tough decisions about prisons, education, pensions and tax need to be made if NZ is to avoid a looming Government debt crisis, says Treasury.

New Zealand's debt will reach 220 per cent of its wealth by 2050, if historic spending trends continue, says Treasury.

How can we expect an Australian standard of living when their productivity is about 40 per cent higher than ours, asks Brian Fallow.

Top public servants received substantial pay rises in the past year, while there was also a big jump in civil servants earning over $100,000.

Broadening the tax base is critical in the longer term, to avoid large increases in personal income taxes and GST, a working group has said.

Commerce Minister Simon Power plans to force out "incompetent and unskilled" liquidators and receivers in a bid to improve regulation of insolvency practitioners.