Dail Michael John Jones (born 7 July 1944) is a New Zealand politician. He has been a member of the

New Zealand First New Zealand First (), commonly abbreviated to NZ First or NZF, is a political party in New Zealand, founded and led by Winston Peters, who has served three times as Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, deputy prime minister. The party has form ...

party, and was formerly in the

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

Early life

Jones was born in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, British India, and attended St Joseph's College Quetta and Garrison School, Quetta and

Karachi Grammar School Karachi Grammar School is an independent, English-medium school located in 3 different campuses across Karachi. The main and oldest campus is located in Saddar, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It is a highly selective, coeducational day school (formerl ...

. He and his mother arrived in New Zealand in 1960, and he completed his education at

St Paul's College, Auckland St Paul's College is a Catholic secondary school for boys owned by the Marist Brothers and located in the central Auckland suburb of Ponsonby on a spacious 7.3 hectare campus. The Marist Brothers first opened a school on the site ( Sacred Hear ...

, and the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, from where he earned an

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

. He began practice as a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

Member of Parliament

In the , Jones was elected MP for Waitemata, standing as a

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 Helensville () is a town in the North Island of New Zealand. It is sited northwest of Auckland, close to the southern extremity of the Kaipara Harbour. State Highway 16 passes through the town, connecting it to Waimauku to the south, and Ka ...

. He retained this electorate until the 1984 election, when Helensville electorate was abolished. Jones contested the new 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 , Jones returned to Parliament as a

list MP A list MP is a member of parliament (MP) elected from a party list rather than a geographic electoral district. The place in Parliament is due to the number of votes the party won, not to votes received by the MP personally. This occurs only in ...

for the

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 , 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 Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

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 Spanking is a form of corporal punishment involving the act of striking, with either the palm of the hand or an implement, the buttocks of a person to cause physical pain. The term spanking broadly encompasses the use of either the hand or implem ...

). Dail Jones stated that "custard is more dangerous than second-hand smoke. ... ndmilk ... is worse than second-hand smoke". He also attracted criticism in February 2008 from

Winston Peters Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician. He has led the political party New Zealand First since he founded it in 1993, and since November 2023 has served as the 25th Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand), ...

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 . 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 , 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 The New Year Honours 2006 in some Commonwealth realms were announced (on 31 December 2005) in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Saint Christopher and Nevis to c ...

, Jones was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The King's Service Order () established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant of Queen regnant, Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to t ...

, for public services.

Notes

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Dail Jones
New Zealand Parliament website {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Dail 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