Without easy access to the facts and figures of this year’s budget, business leaders were short of questions when they met with Finance Minister Paula Cox for a Chamber of Commerce power breakfast, writes Scott Neil.

Unlike previous years, the Budget Statement booklet did not contain any appendices or facts and figures to allow for year-by-year comparisons or identify trends.

The missing information was highlighted by Harry Wilken, of Jardines, the only one of the 100 or so present at the breakfast in the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel who rose to ask a question at the end of Ms Cox’s presentation of an abridged version of the budget. He quizzed the Minister on the absent detail, the breakdown of numbers and facts and figures for the different ministries and economic data.

Ms Cox replied that in order to keep this year’s Budget Statement book “slim downed” the tables and data had not been included this year. But she said a separate economic review booklet with more of that sort of information was available from Government offices for $10.

And a comprehensive revenue and expenditure publication, of which a limited supply have been made available to MPs for forthcoming budget debates in Parliament, will be generally available for public sale some time in March, at an undisclosed price.