KEY POINTS:
Once was a time when minor parties - having finally signed over their parliamentary votes to National or Labour after weeks of post-election talks - then emerged from the negotiations weighed down with booty. Not this time.
It is slim pickings looking for immediate or clear-cut policy "wins" for Act, the Maori Party or Peter Dunne's United Future in their respective confidence and supply agreements with National.
Sure, on the jobs front, the leaderships of the three parties have between them scored five ministerial posts outside the Cabinet. That slightly limits John Key's options in terms of appointing MPs from his own party to his ministry.
Policywise, however, he has not been forced to swallow any "dead rats". Neither is he faced with having to implement a long list of policy concessions - as Helen Clark was obliged to do in 2005 when she struck her deal with Winston Peters.
That document listed nearly 30 items or areas obliging Labour to do something or not to do something.
In comparison yesterday's agreement between National and the Maori Party has just four specific items on which action must be taken. Admittedly, these deliver things of bedrock interest to the Maori Party - including a constitutional group to review Maori representation and a promise to review the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
Problem postponed is not necessarily problem solved. But both the Act and the Maori Party agreements are replete with examples of potential and actual stumbling blocks being pushed to one side by referring them to a plethora of "reviews".
In part, the inability of the minor parties to get runs on the board this time reflects the cold, hard fact that National holds a near majority.
While there was a lot of what Michael Cullen once scathingly referred to as pixie dust around Parliament yesterday as the respective partners lauded one another for the friendly and co-operative nature of the talks, Key and his colleagues did not really have to play hard-ball.
The other major reason is the deteriorating Government accounts. National is not going to have the revenue to indulge its own wishes, let alone other parties'.
Rather than focusing on small, soon-forgotten policy wins, the agreement seeks to keep Act relevant by setting up processes on issues to which the party will have significant input. Likewise, the Maori Party's agreement appears thin but for one crucial clause referring to Tariana Turia's and Pita Sharples' ministerial roles . The document says their positions will confer on them control over "significant areas of responsibility" in terms of Maori health, education and social services. In other words, Turia and Sharples will be able to use the funding and the flexibility to find Maori solutions to Maori problems.
These agreements look very much like another bid by minor parties to find a solution to the conundrum of being submerged. After all, regardless of how much booty a minor party secures, election after election has shown voters failing to reciprocate in kind. It is time for something different.
