Despite all the political posturing by wannabes and conspiracists, there always has been and will continue to be only one kingmaker holding the keys to the Government's kitchen and it is not Winston, it is John Key.
There are a number of silver linings sewn into the long white cloud of John Key's new Government and well worth a mention, rather than focus on the moaners and groaners who will be barking mad until they crawl back into their kennels for three more years.
The first is the lesson Maori have learned about never selling your mana to a "pukunui pakeha" who turned Te Tai Tokerau off their main man.
Hone has paid the price for Dotcom's personal vendetta against John Key. In fact, he polarised Te Tai Tokerau and allowed Kelvin Davis to cut through like a Hawkes Bay back on a Bay of Plenty team - who just like Labour keep getting thrashed because of poor leadership.
But being the fighter Hone is, for the poor and the hungry, he will be back to fight another day, that's how them Nga Puhi warriors roll.
Secondly, the last and only bastion left of a decimated Labour Party is their paepae (oratory bench) of Maori members who hold the only flicker of hope to a candle that Cunliffe has blown out.
And who, just like Christchurch, will be spending many years rebuilding.
Locally it is a proud day for Te Puna and all of the Hori Tories of Tauranga Moana, now we have our first home-grown MP in Todd Muller.
The Muller whanau have been connected to our community for generations and a mate of mine told me yesterday how he used to go to school with Todd in Te Puna and had lunch with him.
I guess hungry kids have been on the Maori political menu for a long time.
What was not stolen but gifted to helping feed the cause of feeding the kids for Maori is Marama Fox, the new "mother of the Maori Party". For me she was the standout candidate in all of the Maori debates and as a highly accomplished educationalist and mother of nine she will know exactly how to feed the puku and the minds of the poor and hungry 250,000 kids in this country.
A big lesson for Maori was you can have all the whakapapa (lineage) in the world - as Peeni Henare, the new Labour man for the seat of Tamaki Makaurau has; and you can have the Kingitanga movement right behind you - as Nanaia Mahuta does, just as the new boy on the block in Tariana Turia's lost seat of Te Tai Hauauru, Adam Rurawhe has, with his Ratana connections.
But unless you are inside the whare kai with access to the keys of the kitchen, all you can do is stand outside on the steps and throw cold hangi stones.
If we listen to what John Key said in his victory speech, "I will lead a government for all New Zealanders" and if you watched the way in which he stopped to respect the tamariki who had gathered outside his house in the cold wet Parnell rain, to perform a haka tautoko (haka of respect and support), then you will hear and see what many of us connected to the kumara vine have known for some time.
There is a mutual respect between the National Party and the Maori Party that has been forged over a decade of listening and learning from each other.
In any relationship that is somewhat symbiotic as this one is, the key is to find common ground based on mutual respect.
It is this respect that I believe will unlock the poverty padlock for the kids who need feeding.
The other is to realise who has the keys to the kitchen inside the wharekai of Parliament - it is the kingmaker himself, John Key.
Now it is up to Te Ururoa Flavell and the new mother of the Maori Party, Marama Fox, to keep knocking on the kingmaker's door.
broblack@xtra.co.nz
• Tommy Kapai is a Tauranga author and writer.
