4:30 pm - By YVONNE O'HARA
Education Minister Trevor Mallard left himself open for "hot air" or "don't give up your day job" jokes when he spent half an hour busking outside his office today.
He and several of his staff, Greg Loveridge, Lisa Beech, Gillian Waite and Bill Moran, raised $23.40 for Wainuiomata's Foodbank.
Mr Mallard's instrument of choice - he could have chosen the harmonica - was the tuba.
"I have had two lessons," he admits. "What is it called - the tuba?"
He said he had no music training at all and relied on one of his more musically proficient staff to tell him where to put his fingers on the instrument's keys.
Mr Mallard and his team performed as part of Busker's Day, an event that is part of the annual New Zealand Music Commission's New Zealand Music Month and designed to increase exposure to this country's music and showcase the variety, extent and quality of its musical talent.
"We were challenged to promote it by some naughty people in Auckland saying we would not do it," Mr Mallard says.
- WAINUIOMATA NEWS
Mallard shows he has plenty of puff, but little tune
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