It was a lesson Grant Robertson learned over nine long years of opposition. And it is part of his grand historical project: his stewardship of the nation's books is one big attempt to prove that despite the ingrained public belief, Labour finance ministers are as good, if not better, than their National counterparts. Covid-19 has blown that surplus-as-competence thinking out of the water. Now, with surpluses not in sight for a number of years due to the huge quantum of cash pumped into the economy to battle Covid, the building of this Budget has been untethered from that prior political discipline. The Budget Policy Statement (BPS), which is where the Government broadly outlines the overall parameters of the Budget, has the goal of stabilising debt by the mid-2020s. That implies a balanced Budget, and the forward forecasts suggest a deficit of only $1 billion by 2025.