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Bill English - Source: NZPA / Ross Setford
In political terms he may be a veteran with almost two decades of parliamentary experience under his belt, but Deputy PM Bill English faces a baptism of fire as Finance Minister when he delivers his first Budget to an expectant nation on May 28.
With the Treasury's bottom line shrinking and the global economic gloom deepening, English will have little room to manoeuvre with the government's promised tax cuts while addressing the issue of rising unemployment.
"What we've got here is the elements of a plan that's set the objectives high, the aspirations high, to replace those jobs that are lost, to make New Zealand come out of this recovery stronger and more competitive than other countries", English told Q+A's Guyon Espiner in April.
The challenge is daunting, but it is one he has coveted since his childhood days on the farm in Southland.
English grew up in the rural town of Dipton and later attended St Patrick's College in Wellington. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Otago before returning to Wellington, where he completed a BA (Honours) in English at Victoria.
After a stint as a farmer in Dipton, English became a policy anaylist at the Treasury in 1987. Just three years later, at the age of 29, he was elected MP for the Wallace electorate (now Clutha-Southland), a seat he has held ever since. Under Jim Bolger's government he served as Health Minister and later Treasurer.
Although English's political commitments have seen him relocate to the capital, he remains a dyed-in-the-wool Southlander; a sharp-witted man of strong principles who likes his beer dark and his whisky dry.
A father-of-six, English still owns land near his home town of Dipton and enjoys overwhelming popularity in the vast Clutha electorate, which stretches from Tuatapere in Southland to Dunedin Airport in Otago and Big Bay in Fiordland.
A more fiscally conservative operator than his predecessor
Michael Cullen, English is now the man charged with steering New
Zealand out of recession and onto the road to recovery.
