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Dail Michael John Jones QSO (born 7 July 1944) is a New Zealand politician. He has been a member of the New Zealand First party, and was formerly in the National Party.

Early life

Jones was born in Karachi, British India, and attended St Joseph's College Quetta and Garrison School, Quetta and Karachi Grammar School. He and his mother arrived in New Zealand in 1960, and he completed his education at St Paul's College, Auckland, and the University of Auckland, from where he earned an LLB. He began practice as a lawyer.

Member of Parliament

In the 1975 election, Jones was elected MP for Waitemata, standing as a National Party candidate. As such Dail Jones was the first person from Pakistan to become a New Zealand Member of Parliament. In the following election, the Waitemata seat was abolished, and Jones was elected as the MP for Helensville. He retained this electorate until the 1984 election, when Helensville electorate was abolished. Jones contested the new West Auckland electorate, but was defeated by the Labour Party candidate, Jack Elder.

Jones was Junior Whip for National in 1979. From April 1982 to June 1984, Jones was Deputy Chairman of Committees.

Jones is known as one of the few New Zealand MPs to have been injured in a politically motivated attack; in 1980, while serving as a National Party MP, he was stabbed in the chest by an elderly constituent in his electorate office leaving him with a punctured lung. The assailant, Ambrose Tindall, was obsessed about a traffic ticket totaling $15.

New Zealand First

Considerably later, in the 2002 election, 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 election, when he was again tenth on the party list (the lowest list MP elected in 2005 was Pita Paraone, who was ranked seventh). He was elected President of New Zealand First when Doug Woolerton resigned.

More recently, there have been frictions between Jones, Doug Woolerton and New Zealand First social liberal Brian Donnelly over the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961, legislation that allowed the use of parental corporal punishment against children (or spanking).

Dail Jones stated that "custard is more dangerous than second-hand smoke. ... milk ... is worse than second-hand smoke".

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. 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 an MP.

In March 2008, he was critical of fellow NZ First MP Peter Brown's views on Asian immigration.

In the 2008 election, Jones was 14th on the New Zealand First party list, but the party lost all its parliamentary seats, winning no electorates and polling below the 5% threshold. He left politics after this election.

Honours

In the 2006 New Year Honours, Jones was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order, for public services.

Notes

1. Normally, list MPs do not have individual predecessors or successors, but Donnelly resigned during a sitting parliament and therefore was succeeded by Jones.

References

1. ^ Gustafson 1986, p. 323.
2. Wilson 1985, p. 208.
3. Wilson 1985, pp. 194, 208.
4. Wilson 1985, p. 280.
5. Wilson 1985, p. 253.
6. "Beaten, bloodied and bruised: The MPs attacked over the years". The New Zealand Herald. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
7. (broken link to Stuff)
8. Thomson, George; Nick Wilson; Philippa Howden-Chapman (6 December 2007). "The use and misuse of health research by parliamentary politicians during the development of a national smokefree law". Australia and New Zealand Health Policy. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
9. "New List MP For New Zealand First Party". Scoop.co.nz. 15 February 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
10. Eden, Sue (4 April 2008). "No plot to play race card says NZ First". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
11. "New Year honours list 2006". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2005. Retrieved 9 June 2019.

Works cited

• Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) . New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

External links

• Dail Jones, New Zealand Parliament website

• Living people
• 1944 births
• Companions of the Queen's Service Order
• Karachi Grammar School alumni
• New Zealand First MPs
• New Zealand National Party MPs
• 20th-century New Zealand lawyers
• University of Auckland alumni
• Pakistani emigrants to New Zealand
• New Zealand list MPs
• Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
• New Zealand MPs for Auckland electorates
• People educated at St Paul's College, Auckland
• Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election
• Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election
• Unsuccessful candidates in the 1984 New Zealand general election
• 21st-century New Zealand politicians