We have Ruth Richardson to thank for today. 

She was the architect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994, what today is called the PREFU – the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update. 

If you don’t remember it, it heralded a change in approach that seemed to me at the time as significant, if not profound. 

Elections were crap shoots. It was a different time. If you think most people's understanding of basic economics is limited, 1994 was a Wild West. 

Many years before, Muldoon had talked about the voter not knowing a budget deficit if they tripped over it in the street. 

He was right, as well as arrogant. 

By 1994 I'm not overly sure it was a lot different. So the idea was we could at least see what shape we were in and whether the ensuing promises made any sense. 

Here we are over 30 years later and the PREFU has a critical role for both major parties today. 

For National it's a report card, a credibility check. It's the very thing (almost the singular thing) that this election is being fought on – have they done enough economically to convince us they need another term? 

For Labour it's equally critical. There's a fortune in promises, in fact $18 billion worth, including the seemingly gargantuan and magical pay equity promise worth at least 12 of those billions. 

"Wait for the PREFU," we have been told, as if whatever is revealed today will answer any doubters. 

I doubt it will. I think Labour today, to some degree, will be badly exposed. 

It will be a contest today between the state of the place, and therefore the Government's economic credentials, and the "state of the place" and therefore the cold, hard truth there isn't $18 billion just lying around looking to be spent. 

But most importantly, thanks to Ruth Richardson, is the fact that it will all be there. 

The fiscal journey of the past three years, the fiscal cliffs, the debt, the cuts, the promises, the payments, the delivery, the growth, (or lack of it) and the outlook. 

They say every election has never before been as important as the current one and they say it's always about the economy. 

Both are true, and I feel never more true than 2026.