Interesting reflections this morining in the Herald on Sunday on Charles Chauvel and Michael Cullen. Could Chauvel perhaps be Cullen's eyes and ears on more than climate change???
Chauvel is a relative neophyte as far as parliamentary politics is concerned. The former lawyer - now a Labour MP - who made his name while working for legal firm Minter Ellison, got offside with the Prime Minister when he issued a press statement welcoming his appointment as a ministerial undersecretary before any confirmation from Helen Clark. That confirmation is still waiting.
But Chauvel is well-plugged into Finance Minister Michael Cullen and his circle of Associate Finance Ministers, and is sufficiently confident of his own powers to secure confidence from business that he will act as his "own man" by chairing the select committee sessions rather than as a simple cipher for the Government.
