Finance Minister Bill English has given his strongest indication yet about the level of any cuts should National be returned to government.
At a debate for the various party finance spokespeople in Queenstown last night, Mr English was also asked to defend his party's integrity in the light of the Dirty Politics allegations.
Mr English and spokespeople from the major political parties fronted up for the debate but New Zealand First's Winston Peters refused to show because Colin Craig from the Conservatives was there.
We'll look at moderate tax cuts for low and middle income earners and the amount of money available for that is likely to be relatively small
Labour Party finance spokesperson David Parker, ACT leader Jamie Whyte and the Green Party co-leader Russel Norman joined Bill English on his electorate home turf.
Mr English hinted that any tax cuts under National would not be large, and middle- and lower- income workers might expect to benefit.
“We'll look at moderate tax cuts for low and middle income earners and the amount of money available for that is likely to be relatively small. So if people are expecting some kind of package that says you'll get twenty bucks a week, we're not going to be announcing anything like that before the election.”