KEY POINTS:
The message is loud and clear: to survive as a minister in John Key's Cabinet, you're going to have to perform.
The Prime Minister-in-waiting made that very plain in word and deed yesterday, by unveiling his first Cabinet and telling his new ministers they would be getting a lecture along those lines when they meet tomorrow.
Key has taken a less sentimental approach to Cabinet construction than previous Prime Ministers, with somewhat more emphasis on talent and ability and slightly less stress on loyalty and length of service.
He spoke sternly yesterday of wanting "outcomes, results and accountability" from his ministers.
As was the motivation behind National's deal with the Maori Party, Key sees his new ministry as contributing to the projection of an image of National entering a new, fresher, more inclusive and more centrist era.
That required sacrifices among the old guard. So Maurice Williamson suffers a huge demotion, being booted off National's front bench and relegated to the role of minister outside Cabinet with minor portfolios.
Lockwood Smith would probably have suffered similar humiliation had he not accepted the face-saving job of Speaker.
Key's desire for new faces in the frontline sees Steven Joyce become a Cabinet minister despite the former radio station mogul having zilch parliamentary experience.
Another huge call is the promotion of feisty one-term MP Paula Bennett from the back benches and into the vast and taxing Social Development portfolio. It could prove an astute move. Bennett, a sole parent who had stints on a benefit, epitomises National's "a hand-up but not a hand-out" view of welfare.
Key is understood to consider the Joyce and Bennett appointments to be a risk - but a calculated one.
The message about performance has also been conveyed by more subtle means. Attorney-General Chris Finlayson jumps up the rankings and on to the front bench at No 9, thereby pushing Agriculture Minister David Carter down a slot and off the front bench proper. Such shifts are noted intently in Parliament and taken as a sign of who is moving up and down the pecking order.
No doubt Key would have liked to have been even bolder but that would have caused even more disturbance to caucus rankings.
There has never been an MP yet who did not think he or she deserved to be a minister. Helen Clark was ultra-conscious of her rankings, which kept such egotistical thoughts in check by ensuring nobody was promoted too far above their station too soon. She would never have dreamed of dumping someone in the way Key has done with Williamson.
Key would like to blast away such shibboleths - and National's huge intake from the 2005 election provides him with plenty of capable MPs waiting in the wings to replace ministers who don't deliver the goods.
At the same time, he has probably pushed the boundaries as far as he can for the time being without risking resentment and disunity brewing in his lower ranks.
