Do we like Bill English?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A changed mind on marriage and two political stains he weathered, against a record of kind acts we couldn't verify in the pages we opened.
English spent 27 years in Parliament and was Finance Minister before he became Prime Minister in 2016. His career had a rough start and a late peak. He led National to about 21 per cent in 2002, its worst result ever, then returned the books to surplus in 2015 and won 44.4 per cent in 2017. That wasn't enough to form a government, and he left Parliament in 2018.
The "Dipton double-dipper" row is the big blot on his money record. He claimed a ministerial housing allowance by declaring Dipton as his main residence while living in a Wellington home owned by a family trust, then repaid $32,000. The Auditor-General agreed he hadn't broken the law, in part because he'd relied on legal advice. The Herald found he received allowances he shouldn't have, but cleared him of deliberate wrongdoing.
The second stain came in 2017, when his successor in his old seat was alleged to have secretly recorded a staff member. English first said he couldn't remember who told him about the recordings, then released a police statement saying the MP himself had told him. The MP denied it and said he totally refuted the claims. Police found insufficient evidence, and English said he'd told them what he knew. It's the kind of tangle that makes you wince, rather than a character verdict.
On the harm test, the gay marriage record is the main thing. He voted against same-sex marriage in 2012, then said as incoming PM that he'd “probably vote differently now”, adding that he didn't see it as a threat to anyone else's marriage. He also said he wouldn't use the job to push socially conservative change. That counts for more because it came with a reason, though a changed mind in a press conference isn't the same as a changed vote. We found nothing from him on trans people either way.
On the planet, he said in 2017 he didn't share Donald Trump's scepticism about global warming. He was wary of what he called "extreme" responses, but backed New Zealand's emissions trading scheme and its Paris commitments. That's a moderate position, not a denier's. He also opposed assisted dying, telling a 2018 select committee the bill had no consequences for breaches. People of good faith differ on that one, and it isn't harm of the kind we test for.
More recently, he told RNZ in November 2025 that he expects Christopher Luxon to lead National to victory. He praised the growing use of te reo Māori, but said that in the public service “performative biculturalism had got completely out of control”. Whether that reads as a fair gripe about symbolism or a swipe at Māori inclusion depends on where you sit. He also led the 2024 review of Kāinga Ora, which a former board member said gave no recognition to its building programme; he didn't respond in that article.