KEY POINTS:
National's new Cabinet could be announced on Sunday, Prime Minister-elect John Key said today.
After talks with the Maori Party today and ahead of further meetings with Act and United Future, Mr Key said it was his intention to finalise deals over the coming days and announce them "at the latter end of the week".
His meeting with Act was tied up in just 20 minutes this afternoon.
Because of the clear cut nature of the election and Mr Key's deals with Act and United Future for confidence and supply this could allow a swearing in ceremony ahead of time.
Mr Key indicated he could meet with the Maori Party again tomorrow about having a role within the National Government as ministers outside of Cabinet.
The Act Party yesterday pledged support on confidence and supply, adding its five votes to National's 59 for a total of 64 in the 122-member Parliament.
National could rule with that alone but Mr Key wants his Government to be as broad-based as possible and is bringing in United Future leader Peter Dunne and the Maori Party, which won five seats in the election.
Mr Dunne pledged his support before the election and has indicated that position remains the same.
With those three parties signed up, Mr Key would have an overwhelming 70 votes in Parliament against the combined opposition forces of 52 held by Labour, the Greens and Jim Anderton.
Mr Key and Maori Party co-leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples emerged from a "very cordial" and "extremely constructive" meeting this morning.
Whether the Maori Party will be able to keep up with the pace is yet to be seen, but it is quite possible they could still be fitted into the deal later next week.
The co-leaders said it was early days and more talks were needed and it would not be until Monday or Tuesday that the party would have a clear idea of how to go.
Mr Key wants arrangements finalised sooner so he can attend the Apec summit in Peru which will focus on financial problems facing the world.
He said it was possible to go ahead with finalising arrangements with the Maori Party but he preferred all three partners, if there were to be three, to be sworn in together.
Mr Key said the Maori Party agreed going to Peru was vital and the latest he could fly out is Thursday.
The crucial element of the support agreements Mr Key is working on is that the minor parties will vote with National on confidence and supply.
Confidence votes demonstrate a government's ability to prove that Parliament has confidence in it, and apply to budget legislation.
Supply votes are routine and authorise the Treasury to release money for the public service. If a supply vote was lost, the public service would cease functioning and the government would have to resign.
If it lost a confidence vote it would also have to resign, because it would not have been able to pass essential legislation like the budget.
- NZPA
