83 Commission  Reports  since  August  1997.    The  evaluator  has  reviewed  these efforts.  Material relating to them is set out in Appendix 4.    Reasons for Low Implementation Rate 307.  There are a number of reasons for the comparative paucity of the Commission’s legislative record.  It is hard to isolate the weight to be given to each of them, but all are contributing causes of the problem. 308.  The  record  led  one  former  Commissioner,  who  is  also  a  former  Deputy Secretary of Justice and perhaps the person who has been connected with more law reform in New Zealand in modern times than anyone else, Mr B J Cameron, to say in a written statement to the evaluator:    The Commission has produced much valuable work.  In my judgment however it has   been   a   failure   in   the   sense   that   its   results   in   terms   of   legislation   or administrative change have not been proportionate to the amount of public money spent on it.  The reasons for this are I think both internal and external.    Loss of Focus on Law Reform 309.  Mr  Cameron’s  first  reason  has  to  do  with  the  problems  outlined  earlier concerning the dwindling influence of the law in Government.  As he puts it:    The Commission’s failure has been primarily the failure of law reform.  Since the mid-eighties  the  political  climate  for  law  reform  has  turned  bleak.    This  has affected not only Commission proposals for change but the efforts of the Ministry (formerly Department) of Justice to promote legislation.  I sense that the will for reform,  which  was  strong  though  uneven  since  the  appointment  of  Mason  as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in 1935, has withered.  The reason why so many of the Commission’s recommendations have languished does not lie in their radical or impractical nature.  They have by and large been pragmatic and cautious.    The  causes  surely  go  deeper;  to  the  lack  of  interest  or  influence  of Ministers of Justice and to Parliamentary preoccupation with other matters such as privatisation and restructuring.  There are doubtless other causes.    310.  The  loss  of  interest  is  in  law  reform  generally,  and  that  certainly  needs  to  be addressed at a political level. 311.  Rt Hon Justice Peter Blanchard, also a former Commissioner and now a Judge of the Court of Appeal, told the evaluator that in his view, politicians seem so concerned  with  political  matters  that  they  have  forgotten  their  obligations  to devote time to the interests of the wider community in getting non-contentious technical   legislation   altered   as   requirements   change.      Justice   Blanchard