Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

The international media have quickly picked up on the news that New Zealand's Labour-led minority coalition government ran a record $11.5 billion operating surplus for the year to June... but still refused to consider any sort of tax cuts.

Finance spokesman for the National Party, John Key says New Zealand is now running the second biggest surplus in the developed world (after Norway). He believes "the greedy Labour-led government should apologize for gouging New Zealand taxpayers."

* Houston Chronicle: New Zealand Records Biggest Surplus
* Scoop.co.nz: Huge surplus shows Labour has gouged taxpayers