Robertson is normally an avuncular, happy chap, but I suspect all is not well in Labour.
He was far from happy, having had to put up with a misstep concerning GST on Kiwisaver schemes, and being roasted by National and Act.
Labour agreed at Cabinet level it was a good idea to place GST on all Kiwisaver schemes, let it slip in Parliament, and then, for some very obvious reasons, decided it was a dumb idea.
Doing that would result in Kiwi workers getting less at retirement. Not clever.
Anyway, enough of that.
Constable son and dental daughter-in-law have transferred from the Big Smoke to a small town near Whanganui with the grandies, cat and dog this week.
Brilliant: no more three-hour drives each way for us all to see each other.
A whole new lifestyle awaits them, a provincial lifestyle, the best type of life in New Zealand.
We were also visited by two dear cousins this week, mother and daughter.
Daughter has just graduated from the Royal New Zealand Police College as a young Constable, and has been posted back to Whanganui to serve her own community.
I am so proud of her.
She follows in the footsteps of quite a few family members over the generations.
Policing, like nursing and teaching, seems to run in our extended family.
Families often follow in trades, professions, and careers, for some reason.
She has taken the Constable's Oath or Affirmation to serve our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, Queen of New Zealand, without favour or affection, malice or ill-will.
The oath guides the behaviour of our police, both professionally and personally.
It becomes part of an officer's life, and most live by its spirit even after leaving the police.
It is all about service to one's community, and harks back to the original nine Peelian Principles of Policing, devised by Sir Robert Peel in Britain in 1829 when he formed London's Metropolitan Police.
The principles revolved around "policing by consent" and still form the basis of policing in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
It was great sitting and talking to my young cousin about her experiences at the police college, the study, long hours, and time away from home and loved ones.
Not much has changed in the 52 years since I went through police training.
It is still a very challenging course, where a few ultimately decide it is not for them.
She reminded me of how it was - the long evening and weekend hours spent with law books and lesson notes, trying to make points of law stick in the brain, knowing tomorrow a test awaits.
Passing tests and exams is crucial to staying on the course. Failure can lead to going home.
Of course, police and society are now vastly different to what they were in my time.
Society is now more demanding of its police - more bound up in rights rather than responsibilities, more looking for others to blame for shortcomings.
I believe being a cop nowadays is one of the most challenging roles in our country.
It's never been easy; if it was, recruiting would be a doddle. Policing is hard work, long hours, broken sleep, and more dangerous now than ever.
Our community is full of experts on policing, critics in hindsight, hugely self-gifted people who have never had to wear a police uniform or actually be legally accountable for every move they make.
Yet good people still come forward, step up, and take the plunge. Ready to stand as a symbol of law and order in the community; to be a person victims can turn to for safety and succour when in need.
We only hear the bad stuff nowadays. We never hear all the good work our police people do on the street - the work with victims of domestic abuse and child abuse; working to help older people feel secure.
Other people's misfortunes are private, and really none of our business, but police, with other agencies, spend their days sorting lives.
I suggested to my cousin that she maybe not contact me for advice on policing matters.
I'm a happy dinosaur now; she'll have to ring her cousin Constable son!
Congratulations, Constable Tamara. You will be a great cop.
