2024 was an epic annus horribilis for the Greens - you remember Golriz Ghahraman, Darleen Tana, Julie Anne Genter, et al. It went on and on. It was arguably the worst year on record for any political party in this country ever. But wait, hold my beer – we have a new champion.

2025 is shaping up to be an even more horribilis of an annus for Te Pāti Māori, who may well factionalise themselves into extinction. It all started so well. And by started, I'm going back to 2004 when Labour MP Tariana Turia's protest against her own government's Foreshore and Seabed Bill led to her establishing Te Pāti Māori. Despite it being pretty much a single issue party at genesis, it lasted the distance thanks to the political pragmatism and mana of Dame Tariana and Sir Pita Sharples, the other co-leader.

They were able to walk in both the Pākehā world and Te Ao Māori, and they kept the party together. Te Pāti Māori winning six out of the seven electorate seats in the 2023 election was a triumph. As was its opposition to the coalition government's Treaty Principles Bill and galvanising everybody together. But since then, Te Pāti Māori has turned upon itself and the ugly mudslinging being played out in the public arena has seen support for the party plummet.

This time last year, Te Pāti Māori got 7% in the 1News Verian poll. Last night in that same poll, they recorded just 1%. Bang, crash, pow, brace for impact, as Maiki Sherman might have said, but didn't, when reporting the results last night.

Te Pāti Māori threw out two of its MPs amid accusations of a dictatorial style by its leadership. The dispute took a new twist in court last week though, when a judge ruled MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi should be reinstated as a party member. John Tamihere emerged from the party's AGM in Rotorua over the weekend absolutely triumphant and grinning like a Cheshire cat, the cat that's got the cream. Those opposed to his presidency simply didn't have the numbers to get rid of him.

According to the party's constitution, it appears the only way Tamihere can be removed from the role of president is if there is consensus among the electorate council representatives. So he has a stranglehold on Tāmaki Makaurau, Waiariki, and Te Tai Hauāuru – Waikato seems to be neutral. Ikaroa-Rāwhiti said they weren't happy about the expulsion of Whaitiri and another MP, Ferris. Te Tai Tokerau, Te Tai Tonga, they want John Tamihere gone.

But it looks like he'll be clinging on. May well be a Pyrrhic victory. If Te Pāti Māori can't find a way to work through their differences, and I don't see how they possibly can. Tamihere will be the head of a political party that isn't in Parliament, that is completely and utterly irrelevant. He'll have his toys, but no one to play with.

While all of this infighting is occurring, as Christopher Luxon said, not one single piece of legislation has been crafted by Te Pāti Māori MPs to further the betterment of their constituency, of their people. As he said, not one of them has turned up with ideas, with a plan, with a way to make the world a better place for the people who voted them in, to use the machinery of Parliament to advance the cause of their people. They are simply not doing their job while they're involved in this sort of infighting.

I would very much like to hear from those who have supported Te Pāti Māori in the past, who as recently as 2023 might have installed a Te Pāti Māori MP in Parliament by voting in the electorate – where to now? Is there still a place for Te Pāti Māori in Parliament? They look like they're doing their level best to disembowel themselves and eat their own entrails in front of us all.

It's unedifying, but worse than that, it is letting down the very people who voted them into Parliament.

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Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making.

He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it.

Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins.

Isn’t it weird that someone who served in the police for more than 25 years - who, I imagine, determined at some points during that time that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute - thinks he can make all sorts of accusations without one shred of evidence to prove it?

That’s what I took away from yesterday’s interview. Can you imagine the police charging anyone with an offence with zero proof or zero evidence? Yet that is exactly what Andrew Coster did yesterday.

He made these allegations that Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell aren’t being upfront. Then, in the next breath, admitted that he had no record or evidence to prove it.

That would be “case closed” if it was a police investigation. And, because he can’t prove it, I can’t believe him.

This is someone who spent 28 years looking for evidence of guilt. He’s got no evidence to back-up what he’s saying - so I’m not buying it.

Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell are both denying Coster’s claims.

Chris Hipkins says he “was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming's relationship with Ms Z during his time as minister of police or prime minister.

Andrew Coster claims he told Hipkins in 2022 in the back of a car while they were on an official trip in the South Island, when Hipkins was police minister in the Labour government.

And, Mark Mitchell is pushing back big time on Coster’s claim that he knew earlier than 6 November last year.

On Newstalk ZB this morning, he said Coster’s claims were “absolute nonsense”.

He said this morning - as he has since the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out last month - that he first became aware on 6 November 2024, when Andrew Coster was told by the Public Service Commission to brief him on the situation.

Mitchell says he didn’t buy Coster’s narrative that McSkimming was the victim. He says he’s a father and that he pushed as much as he could as a minister to make sure the woman at the centre of all this was looked after.

So it’s “he says-he says”. But Andrew Coster has no evidence to prove his allegations so I can’t believe him.

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This morning, I'm going to pretty much let Toss Grumley do the opener for me.

Who's Toss Grumley? Well, Toss is a New Zealand business advisor and investor. The Post has run an editorial he wrote, bemoaning the Christmas shutdown. In it he said New Zealand's Christmas break has started to become way too extreme, and it's impacting our productivity on an individual business level and at the level of the economy.

The summer break, he says, seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the circle back mid-February mentality, which means that while many are at work, they aren't doing much productive work. And the mentality of circle back Feb seems to start late November or early December.

He says having 10 weeks of no productive conversation simply isn't good for business. He points out our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia's has grown at around 1.8%, and we're getting left behind. We need to work longer as we're producing less. We are 30 to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway, and Ireland. He also points out that March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This, he says, is not by chance, it's driven by business habits over December and January. Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD.

Again, he says, this is the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, then everyone stops spending all of January, creating cash flow problems for our businesses. He says while we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly.

Thank you very much Toss and The Post for doing the heavy lifting on the editorial for me this morning.

He does have a point though, doesn't he? Because we have our very own Mike Hosking who's, even as I speak, roaring down the motorway in his fine European vehicle, heading off on his hols before December's been here for a week. The Chrissy decks have barely been put up around the office, and he's gone. And it's unsettling for people when the routine is disrupted.

I myself will be heading off – I don't go until the 19th, but I won't be back for a while. Most of January I'll be gone. It's a long time. They're the sort of holidays I could only dream of when I was a junior woodchuck reporter. Penny and Robert, our favourite coffee shop downstairs, they're paying rent on their space. They don't stop paying rent over Christmas and New Year, so they'll be back. Heaven knows who'll be around to buy the coffees and the excellent muffins that Helen barely ever touches because our people are clearing off apart from a skeleton staff. The council offices over the road will be deserted too, I imagine, apart from the skeleton staff.

I'd be really interested to hear from you as to what you want. If you are one of the many, many small business owners, small to medium business owners, do you work like a navy right up until Christmas Eve, and then think, thank heavens, put the closed sign up on the shop and head off for three weeks, four weeks, and think, no, I'm not doing anything over January. I'm done. Do you wish that you could take two weeks off, recover, and then come back and everybody else came back too and business as usual, like Toss is saying.

He got a fair bit of flak for this when he posted this initially on LinkedIn. People were really grumpy, saying he begrudged people holidays. And he doesn't. He says he just wishes they were spaced out throughout the year, rather than having the great Christmas shutdown.

Do people order their bathroom or kitchen renos in December and January, or do you wait until February? Is it a case of, oh well, might as well take the time off because my supplier's taken the time off and customers aren't responding to calls, and then it becomes a domino effect. One topples and the next thing, you know, we all fall over and lie in the sand with a cool drink by our side, thinking, well, circle back February.

How many weeks for you is optimum for a holiday? How many would you like other people to take? When it comes to the schools and the teachers, when it comes to radio stations and the hosts, when it comes to businesses, when it comes to suppliers. Is it six weeks, four weeks, three weeks? What to you would be the optimum?

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