Dail Jones
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Dail Michael John Jones QSO (born 7 July 1944) is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the New Zealand First party, and was formerly in the National Party.
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[edit] Early life
Jones was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and attended Karachi Grammar School.[1] He arrived in New Zealand at the age of 16 in 1959,[citation needed] and after completing his education at Auckland University, (earning a LLB), began practice as a lawyer.
[edit] Member of Parliament
| Parl. | Electorate | List Pos. | Party |
| 38th | Waitemata | National | |
| 39th | Helensville | National | |
| 40th | Helensville | National | |
| 47th | List | 10 | NZ First |
| 48th | List | 10 | NZ First |
In the 1975 elections, Jones was elected MP for Waitemata, standing as a National Party candidate. In the following election, the Waitemata seat was abolished, and Jones was elected as the MP for Helensville. He retained this seat until the 1984 elections, when Helensville electorate was abolished. Jones contested the new West Auckland seat, but was defeated by the Labour Party candidate, Jack Elder.
Jones is known as one of the few New Zealand MPs to have been injured in a political attack - in 1980, while serving as a National Party MP, he was stabbed in the chest by an elderly constituent in his electorate office.
[edit] New Zealand First
Considerably later, in the 2002 elections, Jones returned to Parliament as a list MP for the New Zealand First party, which had been established during Jones' time outside Parliament. He was ranked in tenth place on the New Zealand First list. He was New Zealand First spokesperson on foreign affairs, trade, customs, the courts, and the attorney-general's role. He lost his seat in the 2005 elections, when he was again tenth on the party list (the lowest list MP elected in 2005 was Pita Paraone, No. 7). He was elected President of the New Zealand First party when Doug Woolerton resigned.
More recently, there have been frictions between Jones, Doug Woolerton and New Zealand First social liberal Brian Donnelly over repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, legislation that allowed the use of parental corporal punishment against children (or spanking)[2]
Dail Jones stated that "Custard is more dangerous than second-hand smoke. ...[and] milk …is worse than second-hand smoke" [3]
He also attracted criticism in February 2008 from Winston Peters for suggesting that New Zealand First had received large anonymous donations.
On 15 February 2008, Jones was returned to Parliament as a list MP once more, replacing Brian Donnelly, who had been appointed as New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands[4]. He was tenth on the New Zealand First party list in 2005. Two people ahead of him on the party list, Susan Baragwanath and Jim Peters, declined the position, and he resigned as party President after becoming a MP.
In March 2008, he was critical [5] of fellow NZ First MP Peter Brown's views on Asian immigration.
[edit] References
- ^ "Leader's Letter", November 2002. New Zealand First.
- ^ [1] (broken link to Stuff)
- ^ MPs misuse research on smoking - Study, 2007 Media Release, University of Otago, New Zealand
- ^ New List MP For New Zealand First Party. Scoop.co.nz (15 February 2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
- ^ No plot to play race card says NZ First - 04 Apr 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news
- The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party by Barry Gustafson (1986, Reed Methuen, Auckland; in biographical appendix of National MPs, page 323) ISBN 0474001776
[edit] External links
- Dail Jones, New Zealand Parliament website
