The man who's been in the hot seat for the past eight Budgets will be taking a back seat today when Steven Joyce delivers his first.

Prime Minister Bill English says he isn't envious that Mr Joyce has more money to play with, because he said much of it has already been accounted for.

"We've already announced some fairly significant commitments, for instance the pay settlement for rest home and home care workers is $2 billion over four years," he said.

He said: "there's a big spend ahead of us on infrastructure" in order to support population growth.

"We also want to reduce debt to make sure that if things go wrong in the future as they've done in the recent past that we'll be able to absorb it," he said.

"There's a range of calls on the surplus and we'll be pretty responsible about it."

READ: Steven Joyce: 'Won't be giving money out like lollies'

When the Finance Minister delivers the Budget at 2pm this afternoon, he is expected to show the Government's books are in good shape.

Pre-Budget announcements have already detailed some spending, including more for trade negotiations, tourism infrastructure and the movie industry.

The film industry is in line to get another $303.9m. The Government has also lifted its commitment on infrastructure spending to $11 billion over four years.

Newstalk ZB's Political Editor Barry Soper said while "it is election year and the Government's got more money to play with than it's ever had since coming into office", Mr Joyce has been playing down the prospect of any significant surprises.

"The temptation to offer a sweetener is great but with this conservative team they're more likely to venture into Labour ground - as they have done in the past - capturing the centre ground that the opposition doesn't seem to be terribly interested in," Soper said.

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Chair of High Country Federated Farmers Simon Williamson said Water is the main issue on farmers minds ahead of today's budget announcement. In general, they think funding in the industry should stay pro quota.

"Now there's a lot of talk around charging for water, but we've got no big issues about that - only 20 per cent of the allocated water's used for irrigation and if they're going to do that they've got to charge people in town."

Simon Williamson said any tax on water would likely be unpopular with everyone.

In Christchurch, Labour said they would be disappointed if today's budget didn't invest more into mental health.

Candidate for Christchurch Central Duncan Webb said after a tour of Hillmorton Hospital it's clear funding is what mental health needs, to improve staff, infrastructure and early intervention.

"I'd be really disappointed if there wasn't a really good uplift in the budget allowance for health, and mental health in particular, because it's been crying out for a long time."