Prime Minister John Key was back on the ninth floor of the Beehive on Monday hosting meetings with the three minor parties he hopes will support his government.
National has 60 seats in the 121-seat Parliament and needs the support of the smaller parties to give it a majority.
It will negotiate confidence and supply agreements with ACT and United Future, giving it 62 votes in Parliament, and hopes to reach an agreement with the Maori Party which would increase that to 65.
ACT MP John Banks, United Future leader Peter Dunne and Maori Party co-leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples took turns to be ushered past the cameras and into the Prime Minister's office on Monday afternoon, stopping for photos and handshakes.
[image:3936:full]On his way into the meeting, Mr Banks said he would like to have a ministerial position in the National-led Government.
He would not say what portfolio he would like to have, but when asked by a reporter if it should be a finance role, Mr Banks, apparently jokingly, said Minister of Finance sounded pretty good.
That was met with laughter from Prime Minister John Key.
Afterwards Mr Banks said there had been a discussion in broad terms about what he stood for and he raised matters including limiting the role of government in small business and addessing economic sovereignty.
Mr Banks says he will be reporting back to his board and expects to meet Mr Key again soon, although no time has yet been set.
ACT has said it wants progress on two pieces of legislation - one that would put a cap on government spending, and the other, the Regulatory Standards Bill, which it says would reduce red tape for businesses.
The Maori Party has not committed itself to a new confidence and supply agreement.
[image:3937:full]It will be looking for ministerial posts and an assurance of continued funding for social services programme Whanau Ora.
While the party opposes plans to partially privatise state assets, Pita Sharples said asset sales could be left out of any deal with National.
After the meeting his co-leader, Tariana Turia, also said the asset sales policy could be excluded from a confidence and supply agreement with National.
Mr Key said National would like to continue the good working relationship it had with the Maori Party in the last term of Parliament.
United Future leader Peter Dunne emerged from this talks saying there was broad agreement on the party's conditions for supporting the new National-led government on confidence and supply.
"We've certainly got the the point where we know roughly where we all want to head in terms of this negotiation."
Radio New Zealand's political editor expects ACT and United Future to reach agreements before the end of the week. He says Peter Dunne is likely to remain Revenue Minister but it is less clear what John Banks may get.
The Maori Party will conduct a series of meetings with its supporters before committing to any deal.
Support arrangement 'worked well'
Mr Key told Morning Report the arrangements in the last Government worked well, with the parties bound by confidence and supply agreements and the requirements of their ministerial portfolios, but beyond that free to disagree with the Government.
Mr Key was asked whether the party leaders might keep their portfolios and ACT's sole MP John Banks be given the Corrections role.
"Early days for those sorts of thoughts. We need to have discussions with them, see where their interests lie. But again, I'm not ruling that out - that might be eminently logical."
At some point, John Key says, National will talk to the Green Party but any agreement is likely to be based on policy rather than confidence and supply.
