After nine years waiting - just $16 a week

New Zealanders have waited nine long years for Michael Cullen to admit he's wrong and deliver tax cuts giving the average wage earner just $16 a week, says National Party Leader John Key.

"Michael Cullen says he will give the average wage earner $16 a week – the equivalent of a family size block of cheese – a couple of weeks out from the election.

"Then, once the election is gone, the average wage earner will get just $6 more a couple of years later. It will be a very long time between toasted sandwiches.

"No finance minister in New Zealand history has had the opportunity to cut taxes like Michael Cullen. Yet he has squandered the golden economic weather and failed to future-proof the economy. He doesn't believe in tax cuts, and still doesn't.

"Yet after more than 3,000 days in office, he says he will finally deliver – just days from an election. New Zealanders will just see this as the desperate and cynical move it is.

"Labour's move is all about survival, not a sense of real priorities about New Zealand's future direction.

"And who can trust Labour and Michael Cullen on tax? He cancelled the 2005 'chewing gum' tax cuts, and still doesn't believe in them. What odds on 2010 and 2011?

"Tax cuts are a top priority for National.

"We will have an ongoing plan of meaningful tax cuts as an essential part of our five-point economic plan that will make New Zealand a wealthier, more successful country.

"Our plan is focused on getting New Zealand through this downturn and onto a much stronger path of economic growth and opportunity."