New Zealand is forecasting a budget surplus a year earlier than Australia but Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is "completely dumbfounded" anyone would suggest that was because of a better economic performance.
NZ Finance Minister Bill English handed down his 2013 budget today, just two days after Mr Swan had handed down his Australian version.
Mr English confirmed the government will achieve a surplus in 2014/15, albeit a slim $NZ75 million ($A63.08 million).
In contrast, Mr Swan has pushed back his forecast of a balanced budget to 2015/16, rather than returning one this financial year as previously promised.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey used parliamentary question time to point out the release of the NZ budget.
"How can the Australian treasurer insist that the government's budget of deficits, higher unemployment and slower economic growth is unavoidable when New Zealand has been able to deliver an earlier surplus without a major resources industry and a strong New Zealand dollar," he said.
Mr Swan said he was "completely dumbfounded" by the comparison.
"There are just a couple of small differences between Australia and New Zealand," Mr Swan said.
"New Zealand went into recession."
He said Australia had grown by 13 per cent since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, while NZ had grown by just four per cent.
Among a series of other comparisons, he also pointed out that NZ had lifted its GST in 2010.
Australia's GST had remained at 10 per cent since its 2000 inception.
"They have got a plan for savage cuts to our economy," Mr Swan said pointing to the opposition benches.
"They want to make it smaller, they want to make it more like New Zealand."
Rating agencies were quick to affirm NZ's ratings after the its budget - AA by Standard & Poor's, AA by Fitch Ratings and Aaa by Moody's Investors Services.
In contrast, Australia is rated triple-A by all three, one of only eight countries to hold such a status.
Australia's net debt is now forecast to peak at 11.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014/15, the same time that NZ will peak at 28.7 per cent.
Moody's sovereign risk senior vice president Steven Hess says he expects Australia will remain strong among the Aaa-rated sovereign debt issuers with a low level of debt.
Even including state and local government debt, Australia's consolidated government debt is only around 25 per cent of GDP.
"The median level for the 14 sovereigns that we rate Aaa is 50 per cent, and Australia has the lowest debt level of any Aaa-rated sovereign with the exception of Luxembourg," Mr Hess said in an analysis released today.
Even so, Nationals Leader Warren Truss told parliament that under a Labor government there would never by a surplus.
"The current treasurer is pathologically incapable of doing it," Mr Truss said.
