Finance Minister Bill English will stand as a list-only candidate for National in next year's election. But he told business editor Dene Mackenzie there was plenty of work to do before he thought of life after politics.
Mr English had been talking to the Association of Asia and Pacific Business Schools conference and those attending his hour-long speech were reluctant to let him leave.
When finally Mr English sat down for an interview, the ODT asked what goals he had left to achieve before the next election.
Mr English will stand as a list-only candidate at the next election, standing down as Clutha-Southland MP after 24 years. That leaves the way open for him to leave Parliament some time after 2014, without the need for a by-election.
Mr English said he had not yet thought of a life after politics, as there was too much to do.
Before the next election, to be held probably in less than a year, Mr English wanted the Crown accounts returned to surplus so the country could start repaying some debt. Debt had risen from $10 billion to $70 billion.
Getting to surplus by 2014-15 was going to be ''a bit of a stretch''.
''We are looking to declare a surplus in the next budget. So far, it has just been forecasts. And the 2014-15 year is nearly here.''
More details would be included in the December economic and fiscal update, he said.
A surplus could be as small as $10 million but he wanted much more so it was big enough to make to make an impact on debt.
Also on his list of things to do was the bedding in of policy allowing businesses to be more competitive. Business and consumer confidence was rising and as people saw the economy getting stronger, they were becoming more supportive of the Government's infrastructure programme, he said.
The public service reforms had worked well and people were seeing better service, despite the upheaval in some areas.
Among the things he wanted to achieve were lifting education standards for children, rehabilitating prisoners and having less dependence on benefits.
Asked if recent policy announcements in social housing, social welfare and justice were part of a more holistic approach to policy, rather than just focusing on the economy, Mr English said those areas were all important for the community and when the community was working well, the Government needed to spend less money in those areas.
''New Zealand is a bit different than others because we believe balancing the economy is better than cutting.''
Mr English deflected any suggestion that returning the books to surplus would be seen as his lasting legacy as finance minister. He paid tribute to others he worked with in the goal of returning to surplus.
And there was nothing he would do differently regarding the partial floats of Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy or the sell-down this week of another 20% of Air New Zealand.
Only the sale of 49% of Genesis remained and Mr English believed the Government could still reach the lower end of the $5 billion to $7 billion target he had set from the sales. Coal producer Solid Energy had been withdrawn from sale after the true state of its accounts were revealed.
The share prices of all three listed companies had fallen since they listed on the NZX.
Mr English said there had been some criticism but shareholders had received the shares they wanted.
''If the shares had gone up, we would have been accused of giving the companies away. The price has gone down and we get criticised for hurting investors.
''The point is, we have sold a half share in the [hydro] dams for $4 billion.
''The taxpayers haven't got less. They have $4 billion more.''
