"Reacting to a call to strip Einfeld of his pension, Chief Justice of New South Wales Jim Spigelman wrote in an April 2009 letter to NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos that pensions should be safe when judges were already retired, they were a deferred part of their salary, criminal law was sufficient punishment, and that it would be even more unusual if the offence "bears no relationship" to the judge's former duties.Spigelman continued that then-federal Attorney General Robert McClelland and state attorneys-general should "impose a cooling off period on themselves" for reacting to vehement short-term ad hoc media campaigns."