Simon Harris

Being blunt, it certainly irked a hell of a lot of people who vote for my party.

being blunt, but I also believe on balance, it was the right thing to do at that moment in time.

And I'll tell you why.

We did it in the last government too.

So every government delivers or should deliver five budgets.

In the last government, we had one of the five budgets that focused on other areas than income tax that it felt the country needed to focus.

I'm being really clear.

I mean, one of the reasons I took up the position of Minister for Finance is to help drive the domestic economic agenda.

And I'm extraordinarily clear that people who voted for me, people who voted for my party, people who voted for, let's call it the centre, expect the budget to start delivering for them.

And what they mean by that, by the way, is they don't necessarily mean...

the government doing a load of things for them.

They mean the government making sure their tax policies actually reward work and help them in terms of their own economic resilience.

And you've heard me outline a number of plans that I have in relation to that, including income tax, but also including the savings and investment.

In fairness, and I'm only smiling because...

You know, pretty much every interview I do in this role, we spend around 50% of the time saying I'm not spending enough.

And then you spend about 50% of the time accusing me of spending too much and that's your job and that's fine.

My job is to try and get the balance right.

And that sometimes involves saying no, but it doesn't involve not listening.

doesn't involve putting your hands in your ears and not listening.

And I'm listening to people.