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Bob Jones (businessman)

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Sir Bob Jones
Born
Robert Edward Jones

(1939-11-24) 24 November 1939 (age 84)
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Known forProperty investor, author and former politician
Political partyNew Zealand Party (1983–1985)
RelativesLloyd Jones (brother)
Sam Duckor-Jones (nephew)

Sir Robert Edward Jones (born 24 November 1939) is a property investor, author and former politician in New Zealand. During the course of various political campaigns, he has developed a reputation for making highly controversial off-the-cuff remarks.

Biography

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Jones was born in Lower Hutt on 24 November 1939, the son of Edward L. Jones.[1][2] He is the older brother of author Lloyd Jones.[3]

Growing up in a Lower Hutt state housing suburb, Jones attended Naenae College from 1953 to 1957. He was one of the 200 foundation pupils, and one of the ten who stayed to the sixth form (most pupils left as soon as they turned 15 to work) where he recalled a brilliant history teacher, Guy Bliss.[4] He went on to attend Victoria University of Wellington, where he earned a blue in boxing, won the New Zealand Universities lightweight boxing title in 1957, and contributed to a boxing column in the university's newspaper Salient.[1][5] He remained a fan of boxing and sometimes commented on TV on big matches.[5]

Jones earned his wealth through investments in commercial property via his company Robt. Jones Holdings Ltd, and was worth $550 million according to the 2013 NBR rich list, and $600 million a year later.[6]

Jones formed the short-lived libertarian New Zealand Party in 1983, just before Robert Muldoon's snap 1984 election. Jones explicitly stated his disgust that the supposedly pro-free-enterprise New Zealand National Party had implemented socialist policies like price and wage freezes, and a top tax rate of 66%. His party acted as a spoiler, helping to deliver the government to the New Zealand Labour Party. Then the party implemented free market reforms under Finance Minister Roger Douglas (hence Rogernomics). When the election was over, Jones disbanded the party, seeing that Labour had implemented many of his policies. He and Muldoon had a legal feud, where Muldoon unsuccessfully sued Jones for defamation. But Jones had great respect for Muldoon in other areas. Jones even chaired the farewell dinner on the occasion of Muldoon's retirement from Parliament.[7]

In the 1984 election Jones stood for the Ohariu seat, held by cabinet minister Hugh Templeton. Templeton distributed a speech to journalists, which included the statement "Mr Jones despises... bureaucrats, civil servants, politicians, women, Jews and professionals...".[8] Jones successfully sued Templeton for defamation.[9] Templeton conceded the comment Jones despised Jews was untrue, but claimed to have a number of defences such as qualified privilege; all were rejected by the court, which found in Jones' favour. Templeton v Jones became an important precedent in defamation law.

In 1985, Jones was located by reporters in a helicopter while out fishing in a remote valley in Taupō. Jones, incensed at the intrusion when the helicopter landed on the adjacent bank, famously punched TVNZ reporter Rod Vaughan, with the whole incident recorded on tape.[10][11][12][13] Jones was convicted of four charges of assault and fined $1,000.[14] Jones asked the judge if he could pay $2,000 to do it again.[13]

Jones attempted to remove the Fijian Embassy from one of his properties during the time of the 1987 Fijian coup and succeeded two years later.[15]

In 2015, Jones was removed from an Air New Zealand flight by security staff for failing to follow crew instructions.[16] Jones' company subsequently bought a jet for Jones and other company executives to use for NZ travel.[17]

In 2018 Jones sued filmmaker Renae Maihi for defamation after she presented a petition to NZ Parliament calling for his knighthood to be revoked.[18] The petition had garnered more than 90,000 signatures but was not accepted for consideration.[19] The petition objected to comments Jones had written for the National Business Review. In one of Jones' newspaper columns, Jones suggested that the country's national holiday Waitangi Day, should be replaced by a Māori Gratitude Day, a suggestion he claimed was satirical.[20][18] The defamation trial began in February 2020 and was due to last 2 weeks.[21] Ultimately, Jones withdrew the case after five days.

Honours

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Jones was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to business management and the community.[22]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • The Permit (1984)
  • Full Circle (2000)
  • Ogg (2002)
  • True Facts (2003)
  • Degrees for Everyone (2004)
  • Four Comic Novellas (2020)

Essay collections

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  • Wimp Walloping (1989)
  • Prancing Pavonine Charlatans (1990)
  • Punch Lines (1991)
  • A Year of It (1992)
  • Wowser Whacking (1993)
  • No Punches Pulled The Best of Bob Jones (2014)

Non fiction

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  • New Zealand's Boxing Yearbook (1972 and 1973)
  • Jones on Property (1977)
  • New Zealand the Way I Want It (1978)
  • Travelling (1980)
  • Letters (1982)
  • '80s Letters (1990)
  • Prosperity Denied (1996)
  • Memories of Muldoon (1997)
  • My Property World (2005)
  • Jones on Management (2007)
  • Fighting Talk: Boxing and the Modern Lexicon (2013)

References

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  1. ^ a b Traue, J. E., ed. (1978). Who's Who in New Zealand (11th ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 204. ISBN 0-589-01113-8.
  2. ^ "Births". Evening Post. Vol. 128, no. 129. 28 November 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Bob and Lloyd Jones". The Sunday Star-Times. 30 September 2007. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  4. ^ New Zealand Listener; December 23, 2017 page 18: "The Best Advice I ever got"
  5. ^ a b Kilgallon, Steve (18 August 2013). "Boxing clever with Bob Jones". The Sunday Star-Times. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Jones Sir Robert". National Business Review. Archived from the original on 28 June 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  7. ^ "Muldoon retirement farewell dinner". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. 30 October 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  8. ^ Harwood, Roger Morris (1985). "Defamation in the political arena : an extended casenote on Templeton v. Jones [1984] N.Z.L.R. 448". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Templeton v. Jones [1984] 1 NZLR 448
  10. ^ "Private rights, public screenings". The Sunday Star-Times. 1 January 2009. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
  11. ^ Film Archive - 6:30 News, TVNZ, 9/7/1985
  12. ^ Film Archive - 6:30 News, TVNZ, 10/7/1985
  13. ^ a b NZ On Screen: Eyewitness News - Bob Jones punches reporter Rod Vaughan Archived 16 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, nzonscreen.com; accessed 24 April 2016.
  14. ^ Dewes, Haydon (15 April 2003). "No bad blood for Jones, reporter". The Dominion Post. p. 3.
  15. ^ "Fiji embassy surrenders to Sir Rob". National Library of New Zealand. 13 December 1989. Retrieved 27 May 2015.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ "Marvelly witnesses Sir Bob Jones escorted off plane". The Daily Post. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  17. ^ "Sir Bob Jones buys private jet". Stuff.co.nz. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  18. ^ a b "Sir Bob Jones threatens to sue woman who started petition". Radio New Zealand. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  19. ^ "The Bob Jones knighthood petition has been delivered. Will anyone listen?". The Spin Off. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  20. ^ "Media gaffes part 2 and flights of fancy". Sir Bob Jones. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  21. ^ "Date set for Sir Bob Jones' defamation trial against filmmaker". Radio New Zealand. 17 January 2020.
  22. ^ "No. 51774". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 17 June 1989. p. 31.
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