KEY POINTS:
She may be leaving office in a couple of days when Prime Minister-elect John Key is expected to announce his new cabinet, but that wasn't stopping Labour's Judith Tizard from taking full advantage of the pomp and ceremony trappings of her position at Wednesday night's Auckland Festival 2009 launch.
(For photos of the event, click here.)
She seemingly put aside any feelings of embarrassment or humility she'd be forgiven for having following her landslide defeat to political newbie Nikki Kaye (24 years her junior) last Saturday night, instead the outgoing Associate Minister of the Arts arrived at the event at St-Matthews-in-the-City like a political VIP dignitary in a chauffeured BMW Crown limousine.
The orange cones that lined the entrance way of the inner-city church were swiftly removed by security men upon Tizard's arrival, and her chauffeur pulled in to the VIP parking spot, we assumed was set aside for the PM.
In contrast, the Mayor of Auckland, John Banks, who is patron of the Auckland Festival and keynote speaker, not wanting to make a fuss of his elevated position, drove himself to the event and was seen parking around the corner.
Not so The Tizz. "She pulled up looking like the bloody Queen Mother, but alive," observed one inside snitch. She certainly appeared to swan around the venue with some sort of semi-regal swagger.
With two days to go until her reign ends and her coach - or rather BMW Crown limousine - turns into a pumpkin, The Tizz certainly appeared to be milking her political privileges if her arrival was anything to go by, especially as the event itself (as you probably guessed in its title), won't be taking place until next year. March 2009, actually. The Tizz will be long gone from her junior arts role by then.
In fact, at 38 on Labour's list, she's unlikely to return to Parliament at all, unless some of the party's senior list MPs quit.
Ironically, it was only a couple of weeks ago we snapped the MP in full electioneering mode at another arts event in the inner-city happily driving herself in her sign-posted Toyota complete with loud-speaker (pictured above).
But on Wednesday night, rather than remove the signs and the mega-phone, the people pleaser Toyota got the snub for the more elite Beamer transporter. Is The Tizz having trouble giving up the baubles of office?
Other celebs at Wednesday night's event include Petra Bagust and Judy Bailey who are ambassadors of the Festival, plus Te Radar, Madeleine Sami, Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Leland and Shorty St's Harry McNaughton.
For photos of the event, click here. Photos by Sharlene Ferguson.
Rachel Glucina
