By Peter Wilson of NZPA

Auckland, July 17 NZPA - The Government has Act Party support for extending the 90-day employment law to all businesses, but the Maori Party will probably oppose it, Prime Minister John Key says.

He will formally announce tomorrow that the probation period, which currently covers businesses with 19 or fewer employees, is going to be extended to all businesses.

Unions are planning a protest outside the Sky City Convention Centre where Mr Key will make his speech to the National Party's annual conference.

His speech to more than 600 delegates will focus on what the Government and the party needs to do between now and the next election to ensure that it wins a second term in office.

He told reporters today that being popular was not making him arrogant.

National is polling at about 50 percent in most surveys and is about 20 points ahead of Labour.

"The party has done well, but there is a lot more work to do," he said.

"We can't take anything for granted, we can see how quickly things changed around."

The first day of the two-day conference was dominated by the economy, and Finance Minister Bill English laid out the facts around New Zealand's recovery from the recession

He said the country was doing well but the recovery was at present patchy and was not broad based.

He said New Zealanders borrowed too much.

"New Zealand has a big appetite for debt -- and the world is hostile to debt," Mr English said.

"It is increasingly reluctant to feed that appetite."

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