Why Bill English is polling pies on Budget Day, Winston Peters NZ's most popular politician on Facebook: Aziz Al-Sa'afin

The Prime Minister is back with yet another quirky social media post, this time involving pies.

Bill English has taken to Facebook to ask the nation a very important question: what kind of pie should he buy for Finance Minister Steven Joyce?

Mr English has a long-standing tradition of buying his favourite pie on Budget Day to celebrate (it's steak and cheese in case you were wondering). 

But this is the first time in a decade that English has handed the Budget mantle over to somebody else, which means he won't be eating the pie today.

Unfortunately for him he doesn't know what flavour Mr Joyce prefers, so instead of just asking him he's decided to poll his followers on which pie they think he should gift. 

The options: mince and cheese, steak and cheese, or potato top.

Mr English's Facebook post has had thousands of responses with many passionately arguing their own pie-bias. 

The Prime Minister is no stranger to viral posts.

Recently he made a selfie video of his usual run he takes in Wellington, which followed his controversial suggestion of adding spaghetti to pizza.

What Kiwis are talking about

Meanwhile, Facebook has revealed what New Zealanders have been talking about the most in the lead-up to Budget Day 2017. 

Unsuprisingly the economy was a major talking point among 410,00 people, generating more than 2 million interactions (this includes original posts, likes, comments and shares).

Why Bill English is polling pies on Budget Day, Winston Peters NZ's most popular politician on Facebook: Aziz Al-Sa'afin

In the last month, 35 percent of Kiwis discussed topics such as taxation, government debt, spending and revenue, the Treasury and Finance Minister Steven Joyce. 

Housing also dominated the conversation, closely followed by social development issues including child welfare, unemployment and child poverty - generating 26 percent of mentions.

Topics related to politics and government are often among the most-engaged with by the 2.9 million people regularly active on Facebook in New Zealand.

Why Bill English is polling pies on Budget Day, Winston Peters NZ's most popular politician on Facebook: Aziz Al-Sa'afin

Top Budget-related topics on Facebook:

  • Budget: 35 percent
  • Economy: 28 percent
  • Housing: 28 percent
  • Education: 27 percent
  • Social Development: 26 percent
  • Immigration: 22 percent
  • Health: 19 percent
  • Environment: 15 percent
  • Police and Corrections: 6 percent
  • Trade: 2 percent

Popular politicians

When it came to the popularity of our politicians in the leadup to Budget Day, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters took out the top spot, followed by Mr English, then Labour leader Andrew Little, National's deputy leader Paula Bennett and Act Party leader David Seymour. 

When it came to comparing politicians' Facebook pages by interaction rates (in ratio to their page likes), newly appointed Minister of Defence Mark Mitchell had the highest. 

Why Bill English is polling pies on Budget Day, Winston Peters NZ's most popular politician on Facebook: Aziz Al-Sa'afin

Social media presenter Aziz Al-Sa'afin takes a look at the biggest online trends of the day.

Watch the video for the full interview.