KEY POINTS:
The future of a bill to reform the real estate industry is on shaky ground with Labour left dependent on New Zealand First support to push it through.
NZ First holds the casting votes on the bill after National, United Future, Act and independent MPs Gordon Copeland and Taito Phillip Field all indicated they will oppose it.
The bill regulates the real estate industry - including establishing an independent body to deal with complaints and disciplinary procedures - and NZ First has yet to decide whether it will support it.
The Herald understands it has some reservations about the bill and its impact on the industry - which could spell defeat for the bill or force the Government into further negotiations.
However, Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove said he was "confident" the bill would pass before the election. He would not comment on who Labour was working with to get support for it, but said it was possible further changes to the bill - which he has said is needed to clamp down on "land sharks" - would be required.
"There could be some tweaks but my bottom lines were independence, openness, accountability and discipline and I'm confident that will be delivered before Parliament rises."
Mr Cosgrove's hard line on the bill and the Real Estate Institute could have contributed to alienating support in Parliament.
United Future leader Peter Dunne has previously threatened not to support the bill partly because of Mr Cosgrove's attitude to the institute.
Yesterday Mr Field said he would not support the bill because he believed it was badly drafted "and I don't think they've given the Real Estate Institute a fair go".
Yesterday, Mr Cosgrove issued a fresh round of criticism against the bill's opponents, accusing National of making a "deal" with the institute and opposing the bill on "flimsy" grounds.
Mr Cosgrove made the claims after receiving a letter from a real estate agent who said Reinz head Murray Cleland told a group of agents the bill was unlikely to pass before the election.
"The statement made was it would be a good thing if it does not because the National Party that may well win the election probably would make changes that better suited the institute," the letter described Mr Cleland as saying.
Mr Cosgrove said National needed to "come clean" about when it met Reinz representatives, and what promises were made.
National spokesman Simon Power said it was common practice for MPs to meet with groups and he would be surprised if Mr Cosgrove did not spend much of his own time doing so.
He said he met with the institute twice before the first reading of the bill. He had not met with them since then, because he did not believe it was appropriate to meet while MPs were considering the bill.
"What the Reinz says to its own members is nothing to do with us. It's certainly not indicative of any great conspiracy. If I was the minister, I would concentrate my efforts on garnering the numbers he needs to pass the legislation." Mr Power said National's stance on the bill had not changed since it was introduced and it had made no promises to the industry about future plans.
Although National favoured an independent complaints and disciplinary body, there were other areas of the bill it was unhappy with, including leaving out the property management side of the industry.
Mr Cosgrove has also claimed the institute had tried to heavy media organisations because it had met with representatives at both Fairfax and APN - publishers of the Herald.
The Green Party agreed to support it after the Government undertook to do a separate review of the property management sector and the Maori Party will decide at its caucus on Tuesday, although it is likely it will.
Green MP Sue Bradford said the select committee had given a lot of attention to the concerns of Reinz in its changes and said National's reasons for opposing it were "weak".
