KEY POINTS:
United Future leader Peter Dunne wants smaller parties to negotiate among themselves after the election, not just confine themselves to dealing with the bigger parties.
In that way he believes that the small parties will be able to reserve more bargaining power for their most important policies.
Mr Dunne is Revenue Minister and is outside of the Cabinet and more peculiarly outside the Government.
Like New Zealand First, his party won policy concessions from Labour in a confidence and supply agreement with some common achievements, such as a review in business taxation.
New Zealand First had some gains in common with the Greens in its co-operation agreement with Labour, such as a Buy New Zealand campaign.
Mr Dunne said that while each of the negotiations was going on, the smaller parties were "flying blind".
"What I would think is more likely this time is the smaller parties being less sympathetic to the idea of [one-on-one negotiations] taking place in a vacuum.
"This time, you might see parties just wanting to cross-reference with each other to make sure that if that is a priority for you, go for it and in return we will make sure your priorities are recognised as well."
The level of sophistication had lifted to the point where, instead of negotiating in good faith on a bilateral basis, there might well be some multilateral negotiations going on as well.
Parties in the past had tended to keep their cards to themselves because it was more convenient that way.
Mr Dunne acknowledged that a lot more cross-party criticism between Labour and support parties was taking place now without the sense that the Government was unravelling.
He had criticised Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove over his handling of the Real Estate Agents Bill and deputy Judy Turner had condemned the New Zealand Government's approach to China and Tibet.
Agriculture Minister and Progressive leader Jim Anderton has alsocriticised NZ First leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters over his role in the share float in 1998 of Auckland airport. The Greens are in regular conflict with Labour over transport and foreign affairs.
Mr Dunne said the unusual arrangements of government - allowing greater freedom to speak out in non-portfolio areas - had served everyone well.
