Key's 48-hour coalition plan

Parliament will resume on October 20, and new ministers will be sworn in on that day, Prime Minister-elect John Key says.

"We want to tie things up as quickly as we can," he told a press conference this afternoon.

National gained two seats on election night for a total of 61 in a 121 seat Parliament.

However, Mr Key said he still wanted to work with his three preferred coalition partners: ACT (which held Epsom), UnitedFuture (which held Ohariu) and the Maori Party (which lost two of its three seats but could pick up one when the list vote is finalised). 

Nearly 300,000 special votes (forming around 12% of the total ballot) have yet to be counted. How they tweak the final result will influence whether coalition partners land plum cabinet jobs.

Mr Key met with his so-called kitchen Cabinet" (an inner circle that includes Gerry Brownlee, Bill English, Steven Joyce and Murray McCully) this morning at his Parnell home.

He also called United Future leader Peter Dunne and Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell, plus ACT Epsom MP David Seymour.

The PM-elect told media he wants talks for support deals with ACT, the Maori Party and United Future well underway within 48 hours.

"I won't be wanting to see any hint of arrogance creeping in," the PM-elect told media. Part of that process is including National's minnow partners in the new government, even if they're not required for a majority.

Collins comeback?
Asked if Judith Collins would return to cabinet, Mr Key said, "Not in the short term. She will want to go through a full and proper inquiry."

"Not impossible" NZ First could come onboard
Mr Key said he would not rule out working with Mr Peters.

"I'll let the dust settle, but I was of the view we could work with New Zealand First if it was required and if he [Mr Peters] was of the mind to do so," he said.

"I always thought if we were the biggest political party and he held the balance of power he was always likely to come with us because he's always been loyal to that viewpoint.

"So it's not impossible we could build a closer relationship over time, but that will depend on what Winston Peters wants to do. We'll need to give it some thought, but maybe working together isn't a bad idea."

Neither would Mr Peters rule out working with National. 

However, speaking earlier on Q+A, National campaign manager Steven Joyce had a blunter assessment, saying it was "highly unlikely" the PM would reach out to Winston Peters for the Speaker role (a persistent Beltway rumour) or NZ First for a coalition deal.

Dotcom mistake cost Labour — Harre
Meanwhile, Internet Mana leader Laila Harre has told media she believes the right's vilification of Kim Dotcom, and the left's failure to counter it, cost David Cunliffe the election.

Her party should have recognised the effectiveness of the right's portrayal of Mr Dotcom as electoral poison, and pulled him from the campaign's frontline, she said.

Ms Harre's reflection perhaps over-estimates the possibility the Internet Party founder would have agreed to a pull-back. Mr Dotcom revelled in the spotlight during his party's "Moment of Truth" rally (as well as using the event to plug Mega).

Mr Cunliffe partially distanced himself from Mr Dotcom, saying during the campaign that any Internet Mana MPs would not sit at the cabinet table. However, he would not rule out Mr Dotcom's party joining a wider left wing coalition — a stance that gave National and other right wing parties ammunition. 

On the front lines of Te Tai Tokerau, (ultimately successful) Labour challenger Kelvin Davis was slagging Mr Dotcom as a fraud and Internet Mana as a con.

But Mr Cunliffe — whose chief-of-staff Matt McCarten has close ties with Ms Harre going back to their days together in the Alliance — handled the subject with kid gloves.

Shearer: leadership fight would be distraction
In the Labour camp, Mr Cunliffe has called for a leadership ballot by Christmas as he seeks a fresh mandate.

However, speaking on TVNZ's Q+A this morning former leader David Shearer said a fight for the top job would be a distraction.

He said during his time as leader he was "eroded from behind" with party squabbles and too much focus on how he was rating in the polls.

"In many ways the battle I was fighting wasn't the battle in front of me - John Key was the least of my problems in some cases — it was actually what was going on behind," Mr Shearer said.

"Unless we sort out where we want to go as a party together, then actually we don't get anywhere, and that doesn't matter what leader [is at the helm]."

The party had "lost touch with New Zealanders", he said, and needed to focus on what went wrong, rather than blaming David Cunliffe, he said.