A comedian who performed sex acts on his four-year-old daughter but walked free on the charge will have to wait until the end of the month to find out if he will be resentenced for the crime.

The man, who has permanent name suppression to protect the victim, was discharged without conviction by Judge Philippa Cunningham in the Auckland District Court in September last year, after he pleaded guilty to performing an indecent act on a child.

A hearing took place in the High Court at Auckland before Justice Murray Gilbert this morning to review the judge's decision.

Justice Gilbert will decide if the original sentence should stand or whether the man should be resentenced by Judge Cunningham.

Lawyer Mark Lillico, representing the Attorney-General, argued that Judge Cunningham had made an error of law in granting the discharge.

He said the judge wrongly took into account the fact that the comedian was drunk as a mitigating factor.

Lillico said Judge Cunningham didn't take into account expert evidence about the effect the offending had on the comedian's daughter, and that the judge discounted the intent implied by the comedian's guilty plea.

He said the sentencing judge wrongly applied a legal test in deciding if she was entitled to grant the comedian a discharge.

Under the Sentencing Act, a discharge without conviction can only be granted where the judge is satisfied the consequences of the conviction would be out of all proportion to the seriousness of the offence.

Lillico argued Judge Cunningham had found only that the consequences outweighed the gravity of the offending, which did not reach the test's threshold.

The comedian's lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, said it was clear the judge did find the consequences of a conviction to be out of all proportion with the seriousness of the offence.

She said she couldn't see anything in the judgment that showed Judge Cunningham had disregarded the comedian's intent or accepted there was no intent in the case.

Dyhrberg argued it wasn't that the judge didn't take into account expert evidence of the effect the sexual offending had on the comedian's daughter, it was merely that the judge had looked at the opinion and dismissed it, which she was entitled to do.

Justice Gilbert reserved his decision and said he would likely release his findings by the end of the month.

The police statement of facts in the case detailed how, after a night out drinking, the comedian was in bed with his partner when the couple's four-year-old daughter climbed into bed with them.

He pulled down the young girl's pyjama pants and her pull-up nappy and began kissing her.

When his partner woke up and discovered what he was doing he said: "I thought it was you."

Before discharging the man without conviction, Judge Cunningham said the entertainer's career had already suffered as a result of the charges against him.

"And his talent - he's a talented New Zealander. He makes people laugh, and laughter's an incredible medicine that we all need a lot of."

Judge Cunningham said despite suppression orders it was widely known in his industry who he was.

"He must have significant strength of character to deal with all of that."