KEY POINTS:
New Zealand First is set to review before the next election its policy of not entering a formal coalition with National or Labour - a change that could make it easier for Winston Peters to remain as Foreign Minister in the next Government.
New Zealand First's long-held position of not stating a preference for either party before the election will stand.
And Mr Peters has confirmed that his party will still talk first to the party with the largest number of votes.
Mr Peters is Foreign Minister in the minority Labour-led Government, but his party is not part of the Government.
A reversal of the present coalition position would make it easier, and certainly less controversial, for him to keep the Foreign Affairs portfolio, or any other, under new arrangements of government.
It would also mean other MPs could become ministers.
Deputy NZ First leader Peter Brown re-opened the issue of post-election positions, raising it in his speech at the party convention in Taupo at the weekend.
He said he had not discussed it with any caucus colleagues other than Mr Peters.
Mr Peters said later he did not want to give his view on it because he did not want to unduly influence the debate.
But in his speech yesterday, he appeared to give it support, saying his MPs had the talent to be ministers.
"We have a ready-made team for 2008, capable of filling roles across Parliament."
The only coalition which New Zealand First has been part of was with National in 1996, but that agreement collapsed in August 1998.
The confidence and supply agreement New Zealand First and United Future have with Labour redefines Cabinet collective responsibility and allows the smaller parties to criticise aspects of Labour policy other than those for which their leaders are responsible.
New Zealand First decided before the last election that it would eschew "the baubles of office" and refuse to enter any formal coalition.
Mr Peters said New Zealand First would commit its confidence and supply votes to allow the party with the largest number of votes to form a Government.
Mr Brown made his call for coalition in an unusual presentation at the conference where he outlined what he called his Johnie strategy for next year - which he insisted was not a play to National leader John Key.
Johnie was Mr Brown's acronym for: Joint approach; Open-minded; Honesty; New blood; Innovative policy; and Enterprising people.
There were other more direct references to the possibility of New Zealand First working with National.
MP Doug Woolerton said it was nonsense to suggest that National would call the Maori Party or the Greens after the next election because its own party supporters "are not going to wear that in a million years".
* New Zealand First will pay back taxpayers' money unlawfully spent in the 2005 election.
Mr Peters told the conference that the $158,000 would be transferred next month.
"From the outset we took the stance that we had done nothing wrong as the Auditor-General had used a flawed process," he said.
"We, like the other political parties, were the collateral damage in the Auditor-General's crusade against Labour."
