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Much of the media commentary on the Prime Minister's speech opening in parliament on Tuesday has focused on its timidity.
I don't agree. In fact it seems there is a collective bout of amnesia striking some of these observers.
The Prime Minister's opening statement to parliament has traditionally been utterly dreary and soul sappingly dull.
Helen Clark delivered nine such speeches and some years they went largely unreported. For several years the media attention focused on the ability of the Opposition leader - Jenny Shipley, Bill English, Don Brash and John Key - to tear the speech apart.
On Tuesday night the television networks carried substantial coverage of the tax changes that formed the bulk of Key's speech . Wednesday's newspapers carried several pages worth of stories on the impact of the statement.
And let's consider the centre-piece of this: $4 billion worth of tax cuts. That is a significant transfer of the tax burden. I think it is a step change. Not a revolution but certainly a step change. I've lost count of the number of politicians, economists and public policy wonks who have blathered on about how we as a country rely on consumption driven economic growth and shovel our money into the property market at the expense of investing in the productive economy.
Well, clawing a couple of billion dollars in tax back from property investors and a couple of billion more from the consumption tax GST and then cutting taxes on the money people and businesses earn - that is a genuine step in the right direction.
Key could certainly have been bolder. But politics is always the art of the possible. A land tax would have shifted the package from politically risky to highly dangerous. It's one thing raising an existing tax, it's quite another to introduce a completely new tax and one that would hit every home owner and farmer in the country. Now that really would have given Labour something to campaign on.
Right now Labour's opposition to the speech is in line with its new image as defenders of equity, justice and the working class way. Good on them - we need a strong voice in that corner. Phil Goff had some good attack lines on Tuesday, claiming Key's rich mates would benefit from the tax cuts funded by the regressive GST rise, which would see the poor pay more for their essentials.
If he's right then Key should be punished. The difficulty is we just don't know yet and probably won't know until Bill English hands down his May 20 Budget.
But he certainly has room to move. With $4 billion it would be possible to hand out $40 a week to the average worker, although compensating the GST rise by raising benefits, super and Working for Families payments will erode some of that and English will have to be careful not to simply create a money-go-round.
Remember though too that this is not a government which is blessed with lots of spare cash. To cut those taxes the money must be raised elsewhere.
Those under-whelmed by Key's speech should consider this passage:
"Significant fiscal loosening - either by way of large expenditure increases above those already signalled or by way of significant tax cuts - cannot be considered. The government will continue to maintain over the short to medium term, a firm fiscal stance with substantial operating surpluses."
That was Helen Clark's speech opening Parliament in 2005. "Substantial surpluses" - but no room for tax cuts. Today's government is staring down the barrel of a decade of deficits. Boldness is a relative description.
Ultimately I am withholding judgment on this economic package until I see the final shape of the May Budget.
As they say - the proof of the pudding is in the eating. But the ingredients are on the table and if they are divided up in even portions Key and English should be able to serve up something pretty digestible to an electorate with a strong appetite for higher incomes.
Read more of Guyon Espiner's blogs .
