KEY POINTS:
When Annette King visited the police troops working in the Solomon Islands last week, it would have paid her to pick up a few peacekeeping skills to help with her job back home.
The Police, Justice and Transport Minister left soon after thousands of truckies went on a
rush-hour stampede through city streets because she had sprung last-minute road-user charges on them.
The next day, up to 15,000 people marched in East Auckland's streets, talking about vigilantes and calling in the triads for protection where the police were deemed to have failed.
King returned yesterday to meet community leaders in South Auckland after a month of headlines about crime there, which resulted in increased focus on a topic on which Labour is traditionally deemed weaker than National.
On top of this comes the smaller-scale but nonetheless annoying problem of the Electoral Finance Act - a law not of Ms King's making but for which she is now repenting at Bill English's leisure.
It has been a month of rare public relations blunders for King, whose portfolios are critical in an election year in which law and order and rising living costs will be the main acts on the voters' playbill.
King's value as a frontbench stalwart is that when the Government needs to look as if it is "doing something", she delivers.
There is a downside to such swift action, and it has opened King to criticism for making laws on an ad hoc basis, based on political expedience rather than reason.
The Organised Crime Agency - which will result in the demise of the Serious Fraud Office - was announced when it was still a half-baked policy idea with few details on how it would work in practice.
It was due to be launched on July 1, but King is still struggling to get the necessary support to pass the law to do so.
Her handling of the Electoral Finance Act has also lacked the robust counter-attacks she makes on National over law and order issues.
She now answers most questions by passing the buck to the Electoral Commission as she counts down the parliamentary sitting days left before her pain is over.
The effect has been to deprive Mr English of ammunition to throw back in her face, as he has done with her infamous introduction of the "law of common sense" into the lexicon.
But although some of Mr English's 'interpretations' are indeed mischievous, it is nonetheless an abrogation of responsibility to brush off genuine concerns about issues for which candidates who inadvertently break the law could face stiff fines or even ejection from Parliament after the election.
To say the law was designed to stop the Exclusive Brethren is no longer enough, given its excesses have meant it has now effectively also stopped the unions for almost eight months of the election year and parties remain unsure what is included in the expenses cap.
However, King's capable hands have closed down many potential flare-ups for the Government. After she was blindsided by the truckies' protest - and, more importantly, the public backing of it - she switched to a conciliatory approach to set up a group to work out how increases could be handled in future. The truckies were silenced.
On crime, partly driven by the Prime Minister, she has met head-on the outcry over gang-related shootings, tagging, the killing of Navtej Singh in his liquor store, and the tightening of parole rules and changes to legal aid after Graeme Burton killed Karl Kuchenbecker while on parole.
In transport as well, she has backed down under political necessity. After petrol prices hit $2 a litre, suddenly a 5c regional fuel levy for public transport could only be "phased in" gradually.
A strong political manager, she has also managed to back National into a corner to secure its support for Government measures such as longer sentences for gang members, effectively blunting its chances to attack her on it in the future.
One of her first jobs as a minister under David Lange and then Geoffrey Palmer was to act as liaison between the Cabinet and caucus, and she has unofficially kept up the job.
King has assiduously built links with those in the mid and back benches and developed a strongly loyal following.
When Shane Jones needed a makeover, it was "Aunty Annette" who told him to have a shave and get a new suit.
Darren Hughes is another acolyte and her willingness to talk MPs through both portfolio and constituency problems has ensured few, if any, dislike her.
King is loyal to Helen Clark and is one of the first called to the Prime Minister's office in times of trouble. But she is not so close as to have alienated those who may feel aggrieved at being overlooked for promotion in favour of other Clark favourites.
Come the time Clark decides to go, or caucus decides it for her, it is likely to be King to whom many turn for guidance and to nurse the party through its transition phase without turning into a scene from Lord of the Flies.
Her influence will also be a potent force should she decide to harness it in favour of any individual contender for the leadership.
She is unlikely to want the top job herself. Nor, despite her competence, is she suited for it.
Viciously defensive over her personal life, she will not want the scrutiny that comes with the job.
She resists media throngs, and while she can bang heads with the best of them in debates over general policies in Parliament, her disposition makes her unsuited to spear-head pointed attacks.
The most she can drum up against Bill English - even at his most irritating - is "Mr Nasty".
But when sniffing the wind to see to whom Labour will look for a future leader, it would pay to check whose barbecues Annette King is going to.
