And of course the MSM suckered for it, as usual: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nationa...

Quoting:

Finance Minister Bill English has further tightened the screws on the Government's finances, signalling cuts to future new spending provisions to help bring the Budget back into surplus.

Cuts. At last, some sanity. They're finally going to throttle back the size of Nanny State. Um, no, hang on. This consists of:

The Budget will ... propose changes in the Public Finance Act so there are more checks and balances on ministers' spending decisions and their long-term effects.

This includes a proposed spending limit to restrict spending increases to population growth and inflation, as set out in the support agreement with ACT, English said.

So, the man in control of the country's finances, forcibly extracted from your's truly, believes:

Capping the 'speed' that increasing spending is increasing at (increasing by inflation [which government controls via Reserve bank] + population growth) = spending cut.

Right. Okay Bill. Good one. (Belly laugh.)