Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Labour Finance Minister Michael Cullen has decided the best way to reduce his enormous surplus is to encourage more of New Zealand's taxpayers to move to Australia.

Late last year, a Bay of Plenty businessman John Middleton emailed Cullen a link to a news report noting that the number of people moving to Australia had hit a 19-year high.

Far from acknowledging the problem and suggesting possible solutions that the Labour-led minority coalition Government were considering, Dr Cullen's reply to Mr Middleton was simply to "Please join them".

Middleton sent his email the day after Labour and its cronies managed to get their "Electoral Finance Bill" passed into law. Cullen, a 'champagne socialist', made headlines just a few weeks earlier, for calling National Party leader John Key a "scumbag" and "rich prick" in Parliament.

National's Finance spokesman Bill English said the response shows Cullen doesn't have the interest or patience to find a solution to the problem of people moving to Australia.

"It's just a response that shows that he's given up caring... The trouble is that New Zealanders are leaving the country in plane loads, and Australians are coming here in kayaks."

* NZ Herald: Cullen tells emailer to join NZers in Aussie