Speaking in the National heartland of Gore, Mr Peters said Finance Minister Bill English used to be from Southland, although the audience would know he had not lived there for a long time. The Budget would reflect that.
"It will be a Budget playing off one group of New Zealanders against another - Auckland versus the regions. And it will have this predictable feature: long on promises, some into the very distant future. It will claim we are back in surplus and some will applaud it as being sound economic management.''
Nothing could be further from the truth and if Southlanders took a good look at what had happened to them, they would understand, he said.
The fundamentals behind the economy were shaky and the Government's boasting growth predictions was proving untrue with every passing month.
"What you will certainly not see in this Budget is the Prime Minister's $3billion tax cuts.''
The gap between the cost of imports over returns for exports would not be addressed, the decline in the manufacturing base would be ignored and there would no policies to deal with the alarming rural debt, Mr Peters said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson laid down a specific challenge to Prime Minister John Key and Mr English to explain more about the prospects of future tax cuts.
In a pre-Budget speech yesterday, Mr Robertson said the on-again, off-again relationship between the Government and tax cuts had been like the aftermath of The Bachelor.
Mr English broke with them in his speech last week and by Monday morning, Mr Key had got back together with them, only to announce later the same day his relationship with tax cuts had changed to "it's complicated''.
Mr Key was keeping his options open - tax cuts now, tax cuts later or not tax cuts,'' Mr Robertson said.
"We are not, as a country, in a position to be offering tax cuts when there are families living in cars and garages. I actually think Bill English gets that. He might want to tell his boss it will take more than one year to solve the problems in health, education and housing. And while he is at it, ask John Key where he thinks he will find the $3billion for what he describes as meaningful tax cuts.''
The challenge Mr Robertson issued to Messrs Key and English was, if they believed tax cuts were the right thing to do for New Zealand, cost them properly and put them into Budget 2017. Do not dangle them about in an election campaign as a promise from Neverland.
