HoS on Judith Tizard
Herald on Sunday did a profile yesterday on Auckland Central MP Judith Tizard. Judith is somewhat controversial, but I have to say that my professional dealings with her on Internet issues have always been cordial and constructive, and she has been a very regular attendee of the Parliamentary Internet Caucus.
I’m not sure though what her Cabinet colleagues will think of her description of Cabinet meetings:
But after 18 years in Parliament, Tizard’s never been a cabinet minister, despite putting herself forward in 1999. Again she shrugs it off, “Helen’s view was that I was more useful working across portfolios.”
But would she like to become one?
“Umm, no I don’t think so, it’s an awful waste of a Monday.”
I’ve heard many descriptions of Cabinet but a waste of a Monday has not generally been one of them!
May 12th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I read this article. I have to say she really came across as a bit of a flake, who, if her parents hadn’t been in politics, would be doing something completely different with her life.
Best quote: (To Aucklanders who disagree that she has changed traffic congestion for the better) ‘Well they’re wrong.’
This does appear to be the Labour line re unemployment, EFA critics, Tax, now traffic!
Now you can unleash you neg karmas, you agents of righteousness!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:36 am
If that was the best HoS could do in trying to find positive messages, then I guess Tizard is even more useless than the gossip here.
Wonder why the reporter didnt mention Tizard calling the young (jewish) nat volunteer a nazi stormtrooper on ANZAC day?
or that the RSA hadnt invited her, so she bludged her invite, and still failed to maintain the dignity of the event?
But I suppose I am one of those nasty men who lurk on blogs, so clearly its only my misogyny that causes me to fail to see the sterling job she has done in politics, and all of her achievements for Auckland, in particular how she fearlessly eliminated trafficjams.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Didn’t read article, no HOS down south, and havn’t looked online BUT I do know that Judith has been around for years and hasn’t changed a LICK during that time.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am
deity… “…so clearly its only my misogyny…”
Better your misogyny expressed as a joke than Liarbore’s widespread misandry which is anything but.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:53 am
…Tizard says she’s already been warned about a “particularly nasty group of men, mainly younger men”.
It’s mainly coming from the “Act sort of edge of National”, she says
That would be Aaron and his mates
May 12th, 2008 at 7:58 am
OK GWW, here is a challenge for you. Name all (or even your top 5) of Judith Tizard’s achievements since she entered political office. If you prefer you could just name them since 1999.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Truth is Judith is not seen as being discreet enough to be in Cabinet, I am sure that hurts. Quaint for me to be quoted, though if she thinks she does a hard day’s work the truth is for many people, it’s a normal day and it isn’t half what the PM does!
May 12th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Judith Tizard claimed that Aaron Bhatnagar said ten years ago that she had lost her virginity in the back of a car to Matiu Rata. I have a friend who lost her virginity in the back of a car, but she still has the box it came in.
Waits for audience applause, not a sausage.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:11 am
You lie, McKenna. If she’d been wearing a box, there is no way she would have lost it in the first place. Ask any cricketer.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Totally off-topic (although Lee started it with the cricket reference!) but English cricket captain Rachael Heyhow-Flint was interviewed many years ago by a smart-arse journalist who asked if women cricketers wore boxes. “Of course we do” she is reported to have replied, “but we call them man-hole covers!”
May 12th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I had to laught myself at the caption, where Judith blames her popularity on the “tall poppy syndrome”. My first thought was, and the rest of us are sunflowers.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:46 am
The Dim-Post
MP Profile: Judith Tizard
Monday, 12 May 2008
Ask Auckland Central MP Judith Tizard about her accomplishments in her eighteen years as an MP and the plucky Labour politician is quick to blow her own horn.
‘I think my most significant achievement in the past eighteen years has been to serve as an MP for eighteen years,’ she said. ‘That’s not something you can achieve in just a few months. It takes at least a decade.’
But that’s not all the former Minister for Auckland is proud of. Tizard also cites her recent victory in a long-standing feud with Parliamentary Services to move her Ministerial car park closer to the elevators.
‘It’s not as if I drive when I’m in Wellington but what if I did?’ Tizard asks indignantly. ‘Do they expect me to wander around underground searching for my car for hours?’
She is dismissive of allegations that she does not play a prominent role in the party and is not ‘part of the loop’ when it comes to her fellow MPs and Labour colleagues.
‘I have great friendships with many Labour MPs including Helen Clark and several others,’ Tizard says. She also says she enjoys working with her staff, although when pressed she could not remember any of their names.
‘Helen can remember all these fascinating trivial details like the name of her private secretary and what her PA looks like but I’m just not Wonder Woman like she is.’
‘And of course I have a close relationship with my fellow Labour Party comrades Taito Phillip Field and Tariana Turia. They call me up almost every day for a chat and a gossip.’
‘A big part of success in politics is staying in the loop and keeping lines of communication open.’
Tizard is also keen to point to her other successes. ‘Every year I spend more on domestic air travel than any other MP except the Prime Minister. I think that speaks for itself.’
‘I also receive more death threats than anyone except the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. If you provoke that kind of reaction you know you’re doing something right.’
Its understood that while most threats directed at Helen Clark and Michael Cullen are from members of the public Tizard is exclusively threatened by current and former members of her own Ministerial staff.
Many have suggested that at least part of her success is due to her membership of the prominent Tizard family but the Auckland Central MP rejects this.
‘People who claim that are simply jealous naysayers. I’d have risen to where I am today no matter what powerful political dynasty I was born into.’
And she throws her head back and laughs when she is asked what she does to earn her $120,000 salary. ‘The demands this job places on you are unending,’ she replies. ‘The Labour Party has a conference every year and then we have an election every three years. As you can imagine my schedule is just hectic.’
Despite the busy lifestyle and rigors of constant luxury travel Judith Tizard swears that if she could go back and do it all again she would.
‘Eighteen years of service was a small price to pay when you think about everything this country has given me. Its quite incredible really.’
May 12th, 2008 at 10:03 am
this is a piece/’memory’ of/on tizard idid back in 2005..
(and sorta says it all..really.)
http://whoar.co.nz/2005/tizardthe-arrogant-one/
phil(whoar.co.nz).
May 12th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Judith is somewhat controversial, but I have to say that my professional dealings with her on Internet issues have always been cordial and constructive, and she has been a very regular attendee of the Parliamentary Internet Caucus.
Name-dropping bullshit. Irrelevant.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
One does get the impression Jane Phare must be angling for some sort of arts and culture grant…
May 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Danyl is your next subject , His Excellency Captain Dr Richard Worth OBE MP, drinking buddy of HSH Albert Grimaldi.
His service to the voters included getting a PHd ( from a melbourne university) while punching the taxpayers time card full time
May 12th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
He’s still contributed more to NZ than you, and quite possibly emitted less CO2, you weak excuse for a drunken fart.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
GWW I’ve been waiting all day for any contribution towards the question at 7.58am (by some really longed name blogger) about Tizard achievements.
I’ve genuinely been wracking my brains to think of any…can you help out here?
May 12th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Tizard is one of those MPs whose “achievements” amount to not actually having caused quite the level of damage to the country which they undoubtedly have the potential to inflict.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:14 am
ftc – she’s been amazing, just last month there was this: “An Unsafe Goods Notice has today been issued against a set of water colour paints, Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard said today before having to fly somewhere and have a lie down”.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:01 am
GWW3 … sad you are reduced to ‘getting your rocks off’ by having a crack at “Captain” Richard Worth. So you find it ok to to mock those of us who have served. But then you are your mates are right at the back of the queue when it comes to service …. and honesty, and integrity, and manners, and …. and …. (the list goes on and on and on)