NZ PM Key: Confident the Govt would have room for a range of initiatives

New Zealand PM John Key is on the wires yet again, via Reuters, speaking to media on the number of initiative expected to be unveiled next week by his government, when Finance Minister Bill English releases Treasury's Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). 

Key Quotes:

"Those numbers include both a write-off of expenditure for the earthquake. Not the full cost of the earthquake, but what we think we're going to take to our bottom line straight away"

"They'll also include a number of other big initiatives that we've got, that are taking place”

"There are a lot of different moving factors here, but what you will see over a four-year period of time, is a surplus that there'll be lots of debate, over what people think those surpluses should be spent on" 

"When you see the HYEFU numbers, then what you'll see is the budget surpluses start hockey-sticking up, and they start getting quite big. 

"And I'm telling you now, you might be having this debate today, but in a year or two from now the argument will be 'why is the Government, when debt is well and truly on track for its target of GDP to be below 20 per cent, why is the Government building bigger and bigger surpluses?'"