Bill English

All you want to know about Bill English

For other persons of the same name, see William English.

17^th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Honourable Simon William English MP

Incumbent
Assumed office 19 November 2008
Prime Minister	John Key
Preceded by	Michael Cullen
29^th Leader of the Opposition
In office 8 October 2001 – 28 October 2003
Deputy	Roger Sowry
Preceded by	Jenny Shipley
Succeeded by	Don Brash
37^th Minister of Finance
In office January 1999 – June 1999 19 November 2008 -
Prime Minister	Jenny Shipley
Preceded by	Bill Birch Michael Cullen
Succeeded by	Bill Birch
Deputy Leader of National Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 November 2006
Leader	John Key
Preceded by	Gerry Brownlee
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Clutha-Southland
Incumbent
Assumed office 1996
Preceded by	Seat Established
Majority	13,032^[1]
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Wallace
In office 1990 – 1996
Preceded by	Derek Angus
Succeeded by	Seat Abolished

Born	1961 Dipton, New Zealand
Political party	National
Spouse	Mary English
Children	6
Profession	Policy analyst
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	billenglish.co.nz

Simon William "Bill" English (born 1961) is the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastructure of New Zealand.

English entered parliament in 1990 as a National party MP representing the Wallace electorate. In 1999 English served as Minister of Finance for a brief period until National, under the leadership of Jenny Shipley at the time, lost the election later that year. In October 2001 he replaced Shipley as the leader of the National Party, but after a poor result in the 2002 election he was replaced as the leader by Don Brash in October 2003. After Don Brash's resignation in November 2006 he became deputy leader of the party under John Key, becoming the Deputy Prime Minister after a November 2008 election victory.

1 Personal life
2 Political career
3 Political views
4 See also
5 External links
6 References
7 Political offices

Personal life

English was born in the small Southland town of Dipton. He was a boarder at St. Patrick's College, Silverstream in Wellington, and was Head Boy. He later gained degrees in commerce and English literature, at the University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington respectively. After completing his studies, he returned to Dipton to work as a farmer. In 1987, he returned to Wellington to work as a policy analyst in the New Zealand Treasury, returning to Dipton two years later.

He married a GP, Mary, and they now have six children. He is an active Roman Catholic^[2], but considers his religious beliefs personal and separate from politics.^[3]

On 7 June 2002, English took part in TV3's Fight For Life, a celebrity boxing fundraiser, in this case for the Yellow Ribbon anti youth-suicide campaign. English took part because of the death of a teenage nephew in 1997,^[4] and lost to entertainer Ted Clarke.

Political career

Member of Parliament

Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
43rd	Wallace		National
44th	Wallace		National
45th	Clutha-Southland	9	National
46th	Clutha-Southland	4	National
47th	Clutha-Southland	1	National
48th	Clutha-Southland	2	National
49th	Clutha-Southland	2	National

English had joined the National Party in 1980, and had served in administrative capacities for party branches both in Southland and in Wellington. In 1990 he stood as the National candidate in Wallace, the Southland electorate that encompassed Dipton, and won. He has been reelected from this electorate, now known as Clutha-Southland, at every election since then. At the 2005 election, English retained his seat with a 13,032 majority or 65% of the electorate vote ^[1]. In the 2008 election English continued to hold the seat winning by a margin of about 13500 [1] At the beginning of 1996, English became a member of the Cabinet and gained responsibility for Crown Health Enterprises, publicly owned healthcare providers created by the National Party's reforms of the public health service, which sought to create an internal competitive market. He also became Associate Minister of Education and started the process to indroduce the NCEA to high schools. After the elections later that year, however, Prime Minister Jim Bolger reshuffled his Cabinet, and English emerged Minister of Health. As a condition of the coalition agreement, a member from New Zealand First served as Associate Minister of Health.

After the coalition between National and the smaller New Zealand First party collapsed, the position of Treasurer (senior to that of Finance Minister and created especially for New Zealand First leader Winston Peters) became vacant. The former Finance Minister, Bill Birch, gained promotion to the position Peters had vacated, leaving the Minister of Finance portfolio free. English took up this role. Later that year, Birch and English swapped positions, with English becoming Treasurer and Birch becoming Minister of Finance again.

After the National Party lost the 1999 elections to Helen Clark's Labour Party English remained as National's spokesperson for financial matters.

Leader of the Opposition

In October 2001, dissatisfaction with party leader Jenny Shipley had failed to abate, and English secured the backing of a majority of National Party MPs. English replaced Shipley as head of the National Party and thus as Leader of the Opposition.

However, English failed to improve the party's performance. In the 2002 elections, National suffered its worst electoral defeat ever, gaining barely more than twenty percent of the vote. Both party insiders and the general public were split as to how much to blame English for this loss, but most of the party believed that English would be able to rebuild National's support.

By late 2003, however, National's performance in opinion polls remained poor. The party had briefly increased its popularity in the year following the election, but by October its support had fallen to levels only slightly better than what it achieved in the last ballot. English also appeared in a boxing match for a charity against entertainer Ted Clarke. This "stunt" did not boost his polling or that of the National party either, with suggestions that it devalued his image as a serious politician. Don Brash, former governor of the Reserve Bank and a relative newcomer to politics, began to build up support to replace English. While Brash lacked overwhelming popularity, the electorate perceived English as highly ineffectual and prone to embarrassing mistakes. On 28 October, Brash gained sufficient backing in Caucus to replace English as leader.

Shadow Education Spokesman

On 2 November 2003, when Brash announced changes in responsibilities for certain MPs, English became National's spokesman for education, ranked at fifth place in the party's parliamentary hierarchy. He remained in parliament after the 2005 election. In his new shadow education portfolio, English performed strongly, and remained a party favourite despite his election defeat as leader in 2002, as indicated by his subsequent appointment as Deputy Leader of the Opposition (see below) and spokesman for Finance and Revenue.

Deputy Leader

After the resignation of Don Brash, English aspired to Deputy Leader Gerry Brownlee's deputy leadership [2]. On November 26 Brownlee announced that he was stepping aside and English was predicted to take over the deputy leadership and also the finance portfolio. This was confirmed the next day following a caucus meeting.

Leaked tapes

Two tapes were covertly made of conversations with English at the National Party conference in August 2008, and subsequently leaked by Kees Keizer^[5] to the media. The first indicated that English would like to eventually sell Kiwibank. The second, released to the media on 4 November 2008, just before the New Zealand election, gave English's views on Barack Obama. He is heard on the tape saying: "I'm a bit worried about this whole Obama and Europe thing, just because there's a limited effectiveness in being moralistic about international relations and Europe has turned out to be particularly ineffective even in its own backyard." "And the US can argue over-do it (sic) and Bush should have put a different window dressing - there still needs someone willing to pull the trigger."^[6]

Current responsibilities

On November 19 English was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and the new portfolio of Minister for Infrastructure.

Political views

English opposes abortion,^[7] voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide,^[8]^[9] civil unions,^[10] and the decriminalisation of prostitution.^[11]

External links

billenglish.co.nz Official Site

References

^ ^a ^b Election Results 2005: Official Count Results - Clutha-Southland
^ Church has vital place in our secular society, Challenge Weekly, 66 (6), 25 February 2008.
^ Colin James, Bill English conservative: a 2000s update, New Zealand Herald Weekend Review, 2 December 2006.
^ Bill English goes back to rolling with the punches, New Zealand Herald, 7 June 2002.
^ "Voters should disregard secret tapes - Key". Fairfax New Zealand (6 November 2008).
^ "English criticises Obama in latest tape". Fairfax New Zealand (4 November 2008). Archived from the original on 2008-11-05.
^ Laugesen, Ruth (2004-09-04). "Abortion: is the argument over?", Sunday Star-Times.
^ Euthanasia bill dies in NZ Parliament, Australasian Bioethics Information, 86, 1 August 2003.
^ Death with Dignity Bill — First Reading, Hansard, New Zealand House of Representatives, 30 July 2003
^ Claridge, Anna (2006-04-25). "Civil unions 'waste of time'", The Press.
^ Luke, Peter; Wellwood, Elinore (2001-10-13). "The politician", The Southland Times.

Political offices

Assembly seats
Preceded by Derek Angus	Member of Parliament for Wallace 1990 – 1996	Succeeded by Seat abolished
Preceded by Constituency created	Member of Parliament for Clutha-Southland 1996 – present	Succeeded by incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Jenny Shipley	Leader of the Opposition 2001 – 2003	Succeeded by Dr Don Brash
Preceded by Michael Cullen	Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand 2008 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Jenny Shipley	Leader of the New Zealand National Party 2001 – 2003	Succeeded by Dr Don Brash
Preceded by Gerry Brownlee	Deputy Leader of the New Zealand National Party 2006 – present	Succeeded by incumbent

Persondata
NAME	English, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	English, Simon William
SHORT DESCRIPTION	New Zealand politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dipton, Southland, New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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