Hui being held around the country in the next few days are a "take it or leave it chance" for the Maori Party, says prominent Otago Maori Tahu Potiki.
Today, Otago and Southland Maori Party members will consider a draft support agreement with the National Party discussed yesterday in talks between party leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, and Prime Minister-elect John Key.
The draft agreement includes offers of ministerial positions for the two Maori Party leaders.
Mr Potiki said the party had the chance to take up the agreement or spend another three years or probably six "waiting for the merry-go-round to come back, wallowing in the luxury of opposition".
But it was clear that many Maori Party voters cast their party vote for Labour, so it would be interesting to see what views were aired, he said.
National needed five members on the left as much as it needed five members on the right.
"At the end of the day, the Maori Party wasn't set up to sit on the opposition benches doing haka for the rest of their lives."Mr Potiki said the hui would need the party leadership to lead or the meetings could turn into a shambles.
"Either it is a good deal or it's not."
Co-chair of the party's Te Tai Tonga electorate campaign manager Raymond Hina said he was expecting some lively discussion today.
The hui would be open to any Maori Party members and he was expecting a boost to membership today.
The party already has about 2500 South Island members.
Party president Prof Whatarangi Winiata and newly-elected member of parliament for Te Tai Tonga, Rahui Katene, of Wellington, will attend hui in Invercargill this morning and Dunedin this afternoon to outline the proposals.
Mr Hina said there could be criticism of the hui, as not all interested people would be able to attend at such short notice, but the timeframe had been decided by Mr Key who wanted to know by Sunday if the proposal was supported.
Votes will not be taken at the 40 hui around the country, but Mrs Turia said if more than 50% of people spoke against then that would be a message to the MPs.
Mr Key already has pledges of support on confidence and supply from Act New Zealand and United Future and is moving closer to agreeing a wider deal around those promises.
This gives Mr Key 65 votes in a 122-seat Parliament, but the support of the Maori Party would make a total of 70 votes.
Mr Key confirmed that offers of ministerial positions had been made.
"The structure of all of the agreements we are trying to reach with Act, United and the Maori Party are all the same," Mr Key said.
"It is fair to assume they would all have ministers outside of Cabinet for partners that support us in confidence and supply."
Mr Key said the deal with the Maori Party was about relationships between the two parties and a much broader issue of achieving better outcomes for Maori New Zealanders.
The feedback from leaders in Maoridom was that it was important to have a relationship with National.
"We wouldn't have gone this far if we didn't see gains," Dr Sharples said.
Mrs Turia said feedback was already coming in.
"Tribal leaders have been calling us, many of our people have been calling us saying they definitely want a relationship to progress and move forward - they think that's important not only for Maori people but for the country."
Both sides were tight-lipped about the detail of possible policy gains for the Maori Party yesterday.
Mr Key said he had been assured that the Maori Party could reach a decision by Sunday allowing him to announce a complete Cabinet line-up and support agreements just a week after the election.
He said dialogue with Act and United Future was "progressing".
Today's Dunedin hui is at Te Roopu Tautoko Ki Te Tonga in Wolseley St at 2pm.
