Paul Goldsmith admits he didn't account for tax loss by axing Super Fund payments in fiscal plan

A new finance fight has broken out over another potential hole in National's budget. 

National's finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith has admitted he did not account for the loss of tax paid by the Super Fund - and despite that being worth near-on $2 billion, he insists there's no hole.

Goldsmith was putting on a brave face after being plagued all week by questions about how wide his fiscal hole is.

He says National now has a fully costed plain - but it appears Goldsmith has not accounted for the tax they'd lose by cutting contributions to the Super Fund.

Newshub has seen modelling which shows loss of revenue totals $1.93 billion.

When he first popped into Newshub's office on Friday morning, Goldsmith admitted he'd not counted the Super Fund tax loss. But by the time he got to the on-camera interview in the afternoon, the story had shifted. 

Newshub raised this issue with Goldsmith on Sunday, when his first $4 billion fiscal hole was discovered.

"Our numbers are based on the Treasury system that's in place. We put the numbers into that and it comes out," he said.

But Goldsmith says it's not something that should be accounted for in an alternative budget.

"Our plan has been independently costed and it all stacks up."

Labour's finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says the National Party's plan is riddled with mistakes.

"He actually needs to rip up his plan and start again. because we've actually got mistakes piling on mistakes," he said.

But Robertson will say anything to avoid talking about National's plan to put $3000 back into the hands of workers.

Goldsmith's leader Judith Collins still thinks he has a future.

"Oh yes," she said when asked about him. "The fact is there is one number - so what?"

Except it's not just one number - and the numbers we're talking about are billions of dollars of your money.  

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