mining quietly happy about new zealand electio

he John Key-led National Party Government has retained power following the weekend election that hit the major opposition party hard

The New Zealand mining and petroleum lobbies, which are supposed to be apolitical, kept their comments muted after the weekend general election that saw Prime Minister John Key retain power.

However, the mining and petroleum sectors would have had large smiles over the result. However, they would have preferred the Key opposition party to fair better than the Green Party which had its best result, winning 13 seats in Government through the MMP (Mixed Member Proportional system) - which sees half the seats gained not by winning a seat but by gaining a proportional equity result.

The Greens again did not win a seat but gained 13 by an electoral system that New Zealanders chose to retain in a plebiscite held with Saturday's election.

The NZ greens are more feral than the anti mining counterparts in Australia's Parliament but they have not in recent times been able to wreak the same amount of economic havoc.

The Nationals won 48% of the vote, Labour 27.1%, the Greens 10.5% and NZ First 6.8%.

The return of the Nationals, who will form power with two and possibly three of the minority parties, will end any uncertainty for New Zealand's coal mining industry and on some selective opening up of mineral exploration - notably in the Northland region at the top of the North island.

One of the winners in the election was New Zealand First which many had destined for the dustbin but it will gain eight seats in the new parliament led by political chameleon and colourful character Winston Peters who has served both with the Nationals and also as a political link that allowed an earlier Labour minority government to hold power.