KEY POINTS:
When National Party frontbencher Maurice Williamson quipped in an interview on Sunday's Agenda programme that he could end up being "minister of small grains and seeds" instead of infrastructure, he may have been closer to the truth than he thought.
With his enthusiasm for road tolls around Auckland and private management of state schools and hospitals, the Pakuranga MP may have blundered his way into the ministerial rotation policy leader John Key is thought to be planning.
The Herald understands that if Mr Key leads the next Government, he will make several ministerial appointments conditional on the minister stepping down from the post in two or three years to make way for new blood.
Mr Williamson has tested the patience of Mr Key on several occasions, including forcing Mr Key to apologise to the Jewish community for Mr Williamson saying there been no fat people in Nazi concentration camps.
The extent of Mr Key's rotation plan would depend on the size of the Cabinet and whether any National-led Government involved a coalition partner.
The rotational positions could apply to ministers inside or outside Cabinet.
Contenders inside Cabinet would be likely to be Mr Williamson, Nelson MP Nick Smith, and list-only candidates David Carter and Georgina te Heuheu. Contenders outside Cabinet could be Taranaki King-Country MP Shane Ardern and Northland MP John Carter.
The rotation would make room for novices from the 2005 and 2008 intake who might not make the cut at first such as Chris Tremain, Craig Foss, Nathan Guy, or Chester Borrows.
