Prime Minister John Key has set a tight timetable of legislation he wants passed before Christmas, including the tax cut programme, changes to KiwiSaver and a return to previous bail laws.
The bail laws had the potential to keep an extra 75 to 100 people locked up over the holiday period.
Mr Key said he had not received any advice on a claim made by the union representing Corrections staff that 1000 extra beds would be needed to house violent offenders denied bail. The advice he had received from officials was 75 to 100 beds.
However, National still planned to build a new prison to house the expected increase of offenders denied bail.
An announcement would also be made this week regarding the funding of Herceptin.
Before the election, National announced it would fund 12-month access to Herceptin for early Her-2-positive breast cancer sufferers, recognising the overwhelming international evidence and consensus of cancer specialists.
That would be funded outside the Pharmac process.
Pharmac estimated that providing access to that treatment would cost an extra $9 million a year for the first three years, over and above the current costs for Herceptin treatment in New Zealand.
Mr Key said the Government would not lead to legislation on the Herceptin issue but he would not be drawn on exactly what the options were.
There were several open to Health Minister Tony Ryall.
The national standards on literacy and numeracy would contain a "clear pathway" for recognising under achievement by school pupils.
Looking at the issues, New Zealand had a fine record of education except for the tail of under achievement.
That tail was large and the gap between achievement and under achievement was large.
As reported yesterday by the Otago Daily Times, the Government would also change its subsidy of KiwiSaver so people on lower incomes who chose to put 4% of their income into the retirement saving scheme would not be penalised.
That would cost about $700 million over five years.
The financial assistance package for workers made redundant because of the fallout from the global economic crisis would be discussed by Cabinet next week, he said.
Mr Key has developed an early habit of saying that further details of policy would be released later in the week but then after another question or two, he releases further information.
The Prime Minister started by saying the KiwiSaver changes would cost less than $1 billion over five years and that it was a sizeable amount.
Later, he said it would be $700 million.
He also released details of the dollar-for-dollar subsidy for the scheme which were due out when the legislation went before the House.
"There are a lot of moving parts in the legislation. We will consider the fiscal position and how we put it together."
The KiwiSaver changes would be included in the taxation legislation, Mr Key said.
However, Mr Key would not be advocating a "spend for New Zealand" campaign as part of the tax cuts package.
He accepted some people would spend the extra money but that was part of National's philosophy of believing people should have the choice on how to spend their income.
Other people would use the extra money to reduce their debt, he said.
The State opening of Parliament is this afternoon.
