IANAL

Mr Parker said he could not see how the Prime Minister could re-appoint him as attorney-general while there was a complaint to the law society. [NZH]

It took a long time to bring down our most notorious "bad-boy" legal eagle, Christopher Harder, and that was for pot smoking, prostitutes and assaulting other lawyers amongst many other (how should this be put) unfortunate lapses in professionalism - so Parker being cleared must surely be something of a fait accompli.

My concerns are with the current Attorney-General, the Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the House, Finance Minister, Dr Michael Cullen MA PhD IANAL. That's right "I Am Not A Lawyer" - just remember that when the A-G offers an opinion. This is the man who has publicly threatened the independence of the judiciary on numerous occasions. This is the man who stated (I recall listening to it on radio recently): "I don't believe in Supreme Law" - as in he doesn't want us to have a constitution or any rights in a modern entrenched law sort of way. Our fundamental rights and freedoms and power of the government should be at the whim of the executive and parliament completely unchecked - that is the position of the New Zealand Attorney-General who is, I will state once more, not a lawyer. His training is in the history of economics.

So what intellectual company does our Attorney-General, our top legal officer, keep? Who would Cullen's legal equivalents be as far as constitutional theory goes? Given his stance, from whom would he draw inspiration? Who are his soul mates, his comrades in arms? Hmmm...

And why is it that Cullen gets to be A-G - apart from the absolute confidence of the PM and the sharing of her authoritarian views and use/abuse of the Westminster system? Something to do with the other lawyers in the Labour heirarchy, like Lianne Dalziel being discredited, untrustworthy liars I think.