Heather du Plessis-Allan: We need to make sure politicians deliver on their promises

National is making noises that sound an awful lot like they might not deliver the full tax cuts in July like they promised.

Finance Minster Nicola Willis was on the radio this morning, she was asked about it and she replied that she still intended to roll out the tax cuts in July- but it was subject to Cabinet discussions, so she could not give a cast-iron guarantee it would happen.

Ooh, she's playing with fire.

Look, I hope this is one those weird little technicalities where politicians don’t want to get ahead of an announcement or leave themselves exposed, so they don’t answer the question properly.

But there’s actually nothing to worry about, and the tax cuts will be delivered as expected. Because boy oh boy, there will be hell to pay if those tax cuts don’t come through.

Because they made such a big song and dance about them, and people expect them.

The economy is as stuffed as we thought it was going to be. We can split hairs about a percentage point here or there, but broadly, we knew this was coming.

National cannot be surprised by any of this. We are probably in a double dip recession, that was predicted months before the election.

There are significant policies Labour left unfunded, for example school lunches and the Pharmac budget. We knew this before the election, cause it was in the pre-election fiscal update.

And we said to National- there is not enough money for your tax cuts. We could see it,  commentators lined up to say that - including me.

And Nicola Willis said it was fine, there would be enough money for tax cuts. We said- no there isn't.

She said there was, and then she said she would quit as Finance Minister if she couldn't deliver her tax cuts. So there is no room to move here.

Nothing much has changed from when they made the promise to now- when they need to deliver it.

If they promise something, they need to deliver. Otherwise, what’s to stop these politicians promising new highways for every town, 2000 new police, and free ice cream for everyone?

The reason we extract promises from politicians is because these things are tough to deliver. If we don't hold them to this promise, what is the point of any promise made before an election?

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show.