Mike Hosking: Metiria Turei's resignation not a moment too soon

And not a moment too soon. What possessed Metiria Turei to hang on so long doesn't matter. She clearly cracked and has finally, finally done the right thing.

The question is obviously, given the polls, is it too late to recover?

This has been a lesson in how not to handle crisis management. What she thought she was doing by announcing to the world she was a criminal, I have no idea. I mean, she thought she wanted to start a discussion on poverty. How you can be around the political game as long as she has, and be that naive, is beyond me.

Further, how you didn't work out that whatever was in your closet wouldn't be outed would be equally as naive - but that's how she played it.

Then, having done all that and seeing the disaster that followed, instead of walking, instead of the party sacking her, instead of someone somewhere doing the sensible, logical and (let's be honest) the only thing to do, they didn't.

And so the rot began.

The worst bit was the two resignations, because here was the inescapable truth: if her own party members couldn't tolerate it, how on earth did they expect the rest of us to?

From the Green's point of view, there is still time to claw this back, with this possible exception: I wonder how much of the make-up of the Green party has come as a surprise to people. Have casual observers realised just what a fractionalised group it really is?

The far left and the trampers, the ideologues and the vegans. To their credit, they've covered the gaps well until now. But how many of the green voters could comfortably wander back to Labour, given Labour are also keen on clean water and electric trains?

But in a business where scandal is always a text, a slip, a leak, a bad poll away, this has been one for the books. It was a suicidal attempt, never going to take hold. It was a catastrophic failure in crisis management, and only time will tell whether the effects will last for at least the next three years.