So we are told that 70% of the Rudd inner cabinet would be former union officials.

Well d'oh! Even if the stats were true, and not blatantly distorted, it is the Australian Labor Party.

But then I guess the other side think that political parties only have a name to look pretty. Otherwise you would have liberals in the Liberal Party.

What you do have in the Liberal Party is a lot of lawyers. Solicitors, barristers, corporate lawyers, small-time suburban solicitors (guess who that is), QCs, you name it.

John Howard, Peter "Dollar Sweets" Costello, Nick Minchin, Philip Ruddock, Helen Coonan, Kevin Andrews, Chris Ellison, Peter McGauran, Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, and not forgetting Malcolm "Spycatcher" Turnbull.

Nor should we forget junior ministers George Brandis, Eric Abetz and Christopher Pyne. Nor the recently decamped Signora Amanda Vanstone.

57 per cent of the cabinet are former members of the legal profession. Compared to what percentage of the general population?

It doesn't matter of course. All this is to say that Howard's scare campaign (and it's not scrutiny nor is it even factual) against the ex-union officials in the shadow ministry is bunkum, and prior professional experience is not, in itself, an issue.

However, what the Labor Party really needs is more cashmere goat breeders to counter Fran Bailey...