Reform

Politician and law professor Geoffrey Palmer recounts the events and forces that shaped him in this memoir, as well as his many adventures in reforming a wide range of institutions, laws, and policies. Reform has been a recurring theme throughout Geoffrey Palmer’s life, not only during his career in politics and as a Prime Minister, but also as a law professor and law practitioner. He speaks of his early life and family background and the eventful lives of his pioneering ancestors. He examines the intellectual influences on his thinking, particularly the nature of his education both in New Zealand and the United States, and chronicles his life according to the issues: accident compensation, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Law Commission, liquor law, Maori issues, parliamentary reform, the Resource Management Act, law and order, prisons, and local government reform. Meticulously detailed and engagingly written, Reform is essential reading for anyone interested in New Zealand legal and political history.