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As the dust settles on the budget, heated debate continues over the freeze on contributions to the Super Fund.
Now a treasury official concerned at the suspension of payments has leaked documents to ONE News, showing the move could leave the government nearly $8 billion worse off.
The government borrows at an interest rate of 4.4%, that rises to 6% by the year 2013, but the after tax return from the Super Fund is expected to be above 6.5%, resulting in a gain of $3.3 billion.
The other factor is that the Super Fund pays a large amount of tax.
Treasury forecasts show the fund would have paid about $4.5 billion in tax over the next 14 years, add in that $3.3 billion of Super Fund returns and suspending the contributions leaves the government about $8 billion worse off.
However during Sunday morning's Q+A programme , Finance Minister Bill English said that argument doesn't stack up.
"Try going to your bank, go in the door, say I've got a big mortgage, I've got a lot of higher purchase and now I want you to lend me $100,000 to go and play around on world equity markets, I think they'll say no," he says.
However the government's critics argue that's exactly what households do.
Payments to the Super Fund may have been stopped but the debate about how we pay for the pension has begun again.
