Dunne keeps minister-outside-cabinet role, Seymour made an under-secretary

UnitedFuture has signed a confidence and supply agreement with National.

As widely expected, the party's leader and sole MP has had his position from the last Parliament rolled over.

Peter Dunne will again be a minister outside cabinet, with the same portfolios as before: Internal Affairs, Associate Health, and Associate Conservation.

The UnitedFuture deal was quickly followed by a and supply agreement between National and ACT.

ACT's sole MP, David Seymour, has been made an under-secretary to the Minister of Education and an under-secretary to the Minister for Regulatory Reform. Mr Seymour will also sit on the cabinet committee that helps determines who receives Queens Birthday and New Year honours.

Under-secretary — essentially, a junior cabinet minister role —  comes with a $175,600 salary; a so-called "starter wage" that's around $25,000 more than a backbench MP but shy of the $226,300 paid to full cabinet ministers.

Prime Minister John Key said it was "highly likely" Mr Seymour would be made a cabinet minister by the end of the new Parliamentary term.

Mr Key is aiming for Parliament to sit for the first time on October 20.

The PM is expected to announce coalition deal with the Maori Party following the counting of just under 300,000 special votes, which are due to be tallied by October 4.

The Maori Party lost two of its three MPs on September 20, but could pick up a list MP once the special vote is finalised.

Earlier, Mr Key said appointing Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell as Minister of Maori Affairs would be "pretty much a no brainer".

Under the arrangements announced today, policy areas National and United Future will push together are the next stage in the national medicine strategy, to boost the role of pharmacists in patient medicine management, improving water quality for recreational fishers and re-affirming the use of public private partnerships for major roading projects.

United Future had wanted to introduce a policy allowing earlier access to superannuation, which didn't feature in the deal announced today.

The ACT-National agreement will see a continued commitment to charter, or partnership, schools, which has seen public money fund privately run schools. The two parties will push regulatory reform and continue with further reforms to the Resource Management Act, which the government failed to get through in its second term.