KEY POINTS:
The Key Administration's first Cabinet meeting will be held on Wednesday shortly after the swearing-in of ministers, though that will be largely a chance to grin for the photos.
Prime Minister-in-waiting John Key will not get his feet under his desk on the ninth floor of the Beehive until he returns from his first overseas trip on November 27.
But his in-tray has already begun to pile up with must-do tasks for a new Government. Political editor Audrey Young looks at some of the immediate tasks that will face Mr Key as Prime Minister.
Getting the House in running order
Parliament will sit for two weeks before Christmas, possibly under urgency, after the state opening on December 8.
Mr Key will set Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee the task of drawing up the legislative game plan for the first two weeks and setting up consultation processes with the Maori Party, which has not given its block support for measure in the first 100 days. National, Act and United Future will muster a majority, however, and first up will be the passage of its tax-cut legislation to take effect from April 1, 2009, and the relief for the jobless National announced during the election campaign.
Other priorities will include introduction of amendments to the Resource Management Act and delaying implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Mr Key is likely to tell the Infrastructure Minister to set some public priorities before the country heads into the Christmas break.
Sharpening razor gang
There's a fine line between being seen to cut wasteful Government spending and to be slashing Government services during an economic downturn so the management of the cuts will need the more sensitive touch of the Prime Minister rather than simply an Act scythe. Mr Key will set up a meeting with public service chief executives to instruct them to do a line-by-line review of their spending. Next will be to establish a Cabinet expenditure control committee to oversee the spending review and establish task forces headed by private sector representatives to focus on public spending in a particular area.
The prospect of cutting communications advisers and budgets in departments could see a swarm of blue-tinged PR consultants throwing themselves to the new Government for press secretaries' jobs.
Inquiries, commissions, and other risks
Calls for an audit on all outstanding reviews and inquiries that might have some impact on the Government. For example, the Auditor-General began a report in June on the issues surrounding former Immigration Service chief Mary Anne Thompson and her role in approvals to family members, the Pacific Division, and what ministers at the time knew about it all. That one, of course, could be in National's favour if it finds that former ministers David Cunliffe or Clayton Cosgrove should have acted sooner.
Immigration's own inquiries could have some political impact as well with the Immigration Service assessing a complaint against National list MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi over job offers he made to prospective immigrants.
And the police are conducting an inquiry into the background of Yang Liu, who was granted citizenship in August by Shane Jones against the advice of officials. He is a wealthy businessman who has donated to Labour and National.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Auckland Governance will be transferred to Rodney Hide's in-tray as Local Government Minister. But given the importance of the Auckland vote, Mr Key will be wanting to keep a very watch on its emerging recommendations and the Government's response.
Appointments and resignations
Mr Key's first task will be to set up his own office and establish a relationship with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which will be overseen by chief of staff Wayne Eagleson. The head of the department and former diplomat Maarten Wevers will accompany Mr Key to Apec in Peru and on to London to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr Key may also play a role in mediating among his own MPs and support parties for jobs such as select committee chairmanships and deputy and assistant Speaker.
The last change of Government in 1999, from National to Labour, saw a cleanout of chief executives who had become political targets for Labour in Opposition, such as Christine Rankin. The same does not apply now. After the Madeleine Setchell employment case, National has promoted the notion of less politics in the public service.
And Labour had made many appointments that National could not quibble with such as Sir John Anderson to chair the TVNZ board and former Prime Minister Jim Bolger to KiwiRail.
The biggest political target who could be vulnerable is Labour Party president Mike Williams, who may resign from the three boards Labour appointed him to.
Broadening his outlook
Mr Key, a rookie in foreign affairs, will barely have left for his first trip when he has to start to thinking about his next one. About two weeks after getting back from Apec and London, he will head to Thailand for the East Asia Summit (EAS). The outgoing head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Simon Murdoch, will accompany him.
There he should be able to meet some of the leaders he did not get quality time with at Apec and further New Zealand's free trade agenda, particularly with Japan, Malaysia and India, the last of which will not be at Apec. A meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao at either summit will be a priority to discuss the FTA and any fallout from the Sanlu-Fonterra milk powder scandal.
It may also be his only chance to pursue issues of defence interoperability between New Zealand and Australia with Kevin Rudd with both countries committed to a major White Paper review of priorities at the same time.
