It has taken Mr Key only nine days to form his government, compared with the 32 days Helen Clark needed after the 2005 election to negotiate support and co-operation deals with three parties.
Simon Power is expected to get Justice and Commerce, Anne Tolley Education, Tony Ryall Health, Chris Finlayson to be Attorney-general, Murray McCully Foreign Affairs, Tim Groser Trade and National's longest-serving MP, Lockwood Smith, is expected to become Speaker.
Mr Key has already signalled he wants Tourism and his deputy, Bill English, will be Finance Minister with responsibility for infrastructure as well.
Mr Key signed deals yesterday with three support parties that will give the National Government 70 votes to 52 on confidence and supply issues. All other legislation will be negotiated on a case by case basis.
It means National will lead a minority government, in coalition with no other party, but it has commitments to survive confidence votes.
In a ground-breaking move, Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples has been given the portfolio of Maori Affairs, despite National not needing the Maori Party to govern.
The party's confidence and supply agreement is light on policy and heavily geared towards recognising the importance of the relationship between the two parties.
Co-leader Tariana Turia said the party entered negotiations with one principle in mind - "that if we were able to achieve a respectful relationship, a mana-enhancing relationship, then anything was possible".
The issue of the Maori seats has been deferred and will form part of the work undertaken on the constitution by an as-yet unnamed group in the next three years.
National has agreed that a question on the abolition of the Maori seats will not form part of the referendum it plans to hold in the next three years on MMP.
The parties have also agreed to complete a review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act by the end of 2009.
Mrs Turia has ministerial responsibilities in the same areas she had when she was a minister with Labour, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister of Social Development and Employment.
Act New Zealand leader Rodney Hide is Minister of Local Government, Minister of Regulatory Reform and Associate Minister of Commerce.
Mr Hide paid tribute to Mr Key's open negotiating attitude and apologised for having criticised him a day after the election as being to the left of Helen Clark.
"I felt that I made it more difficult for John at the start. I sort of didn't get the movement from the campaign into post-election well. I apologise to John Key for that."
Act's agreement is the most heavily policy weighted and the most controversial element of the Act deal is agreement to set up task forces chaired by people from the private sector to identify wasteful spending in targeted areas of government.
Those areas were not named yesterday. The task forces are separate to the line-by-line review that government department heads will be expected to review.
Act has also won a select committee review of the emissions trading scheme which will include looking again at a carbon tax as an alternative.
Act MP Heather Roy will be Minister of Consumer Affairs, Associate Minister of Defence and Associate Minister of Education.
Mr Dunne's biggest gain was for the establishment of a Big Game Hunting Council, as part of a national wild game management strategy. This is something he had worked on with the former Labour government.
Ministers will be sworn in on Wednesday apart from Murray McCully and Tim Groser, who will leave tomorrow night for Apec in Peru, unsworn.
Ministers inside and outside cabinet will total 28, the same as the outgoing Labour administration.
The arrangements for support parties are similar but not identical to those that operated for New Zealand First and United Future in the last Labour government. They sought to put the respective ministers outside government, not just outside of the cabinet.
The agreements signed yesterday acknowledged that the respective ministers are "part of the government" in relation to their responsibilities.
But the ministers may agree to differ with National on issues outside their areas and do so as leaders or members of their parties.
Who gets what
• Act NZ leader Rodney Hide - Minister of Local Government, Minister of Regulatory Reform and Associate Minister of Commerce.
• Act MP Heather Roy - Minister of Consumer Affairs, Associate Minister of Defence and Associate Minister of Education.
• Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples - Minister of Maori Affairs, Associate Minister of Education and Associate Minister of Corrections.
• Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia - Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Minister of Health and Associate Minister of Social Development.
• United Future leader Peter Dunne - Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health.
