If you heard the names of Darroch Ball, Mahesh Bahindra or Clayton Mitchell, what would they mean to you? The answer is almost inevitably not a lot.

Well they're all New Zealand First MPs and along with two more of their colleagues Pita Paraone and Tracey Martin, their performance over the past year's been ranked a mere two out of ten on the Trans Tasman political report card.

More New Zealand First MPs than any other party come in at the lowest rank given which goes to show that the party's a one man band with their leader Luigi Peters in a class of his own on a seven, although given his prominence and his performance in winning the Northland by election over the past year, even that ranking would seem a little miserable.

Peters has been in and out of the political business for close on 40 years and at the tender age of 70 isn't showing any signs of slowing up. He's still has the pinup pulling power if approaches to him in a Wellington restaurant the other night is anything to go by. One gushing woman came up to his table and told him he looked younger in real life than he does on telly which had the lined face breaking into the trade mark, broad smile.

Fact is Peters stands to be a significant force at the next election. If he can pull the same vote that he did last year, just under nine percent, and can hold his seat which looks likely, then he could be more than the king maker, he'll be the power broker.

Even John Key's gone from writing him off as a potential coalition partner. But the party to worry the most over the potential success of the Peters power machine is The Greens.

He's never made any secret of the fact that he thinks they're loopy, he doesn't want a bar of them and if his vote holds up, then The Greens could once again be on the outside looking in at a Peters/Labour combo.

It's just a pity that most of his MPs are low rent, largely invisible. Just imagine if he could field a more convincing bunch, there'd little doubt his party would be a force to be reckoned with, sending a shiver up the Prime Minister's spine, even though in his case Peters would say you've got to have a spine to feel the shiver!