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John Key meets with minor party allies after NZ poll

New Zealand prime minister-elect John Key held talks with minor party allies yesterday as he bids to form a government within a week to help tackle the fallout of the global economic crisis.

Key, who needs support to ensure a parliamentary majority, wants to have a government sworn into office soon so he can attend a key summit in Peru later this month that will focus on the crisis.

The 47-year-old met a leader of an allied right-wing party, who confirmed his support to ensure Key’s center-right National Party would have a workable majority.

“There’s an assurance from the ACT party that one way or another they will be supporting a National-led government, so the issue is what form that relationship takes,” Key told reporters after meeting ACT leader Rodney Hide.

National won 59 seats in the 122-seat parliament based on a preliminary count of Saturday’s election, and ACT’s five seats are enough to ensure it a majority.

The voters’ desire for change after nine years under Helen Clark’s Labour Party saw her party’s tally of seats fall to 43 from 49 before the election.

Key also met the centrist United Future party’s sole legislator Peter Dunne to offer him a portfolio outside the Cabinet.

“I want to work with Peter, he’s got experience, he’s got skills,” Key told reporters.

Dunne served a similar role in Clark’s government from 2005, but before the election had announced he would switch his support to National.

Key also said he would meet today with leaders of the Maori Party, which represents the interests of the indigenous Maoris and has five seats.

He does not need Maori Party support to control parliament but has said he wanted an inclusive government.

Details of the alliance between National and ACT were still to be finalized but Key indicated that Hide would probably be appointed a minister outside the Cabinet.

That would mean ACT supporting National in key budget and confidence votes in parliament, but Hide and a possible second ACT minister would be free to criticize the government outside their own portfolios.

Clark struck a similar deal in her last three-year term by appointing Winston Peters foreign minister in return for his party’s support.

Celebrations following Saturday’s victory have been short-lived, with Key hoping to get his government sworn in by Monday so he can attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru from Nov. 21.

But the final election vote count is not due to be announced until Nov. 22, and it is not clear whether his government can be sworn in by then.

“We’ve got the situation internationally with the financial position where I think it’s important that we are at APEC if we possibly can be,” Key said after arriving at parliament yesterday.

The former Merrill Lynch investment banker, who only entered parliament six years ago, said he was keen to finalize negotiations to form a government and get to work.

“I think the country wants us to get on with it and that’s the spirit we are going to go into those negotiations on,” Key said.
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