26 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020
F
or those who saw it, the image of com-
mercial-property magnate Sir Robert
Jones in the witness box at Welling-
ton’s High Court with a set of earphones
upside down on his head was comical.
But more than just a laugh at his
expense, the image and some of the
evidence Jones gave in court revealed
a man who, despite his sharp mind, quick wit and
voracious consumption of current affairs, is out of
sync with some aspects of con-
temporary life. Whether that
extends as far as holding views
that could be considered by an
ordinary person to be racist was
left unanswered.
Jones, 80, who told the court
he does not have a mobile
phone, has staff, instead. When,
on the second day of the trial, he
turned up without his hearing
aid, they scurried to find it. They
failed, hence the earphones
made available in court for those with hearing
impairment.
The case came about after Jones wrote a column in
February 2018 in the National Business Review that,
among other things, suggested there should be a
Māori Gratitude Day when “Māori bring us breakfast
in bed or weed our gardens, wash and polish our cars
and so on, out of gratitude for existing”.
He said the gratitude day was intended to be the
first in a series. The next was going to be a day ofgratitude to motorcyclists whose deaths in accidents
provided hearts for transplants. The Māori Gratitude
Day column was removed from NBR’s website two
days after it was first published. “You have to be
sick not to see the item as a piss-take,” Jones told
the court.
In evidence, Renae Maihi said it was incom-
prehensible to her that Jones’ column had been
“written by a knight”. “His words were an act of
violence,” she said. After reading it, she had started
a petition to have Jones stripped
of his knighthood. Her article
accompanying the petition
on the change.org website was
titled, “Strip racist ‘Sir’ Bob Jones
of his Knighthood – Read his vile
rant here.”
After threatening legal action
against Maihi if she persisted
in her actions, Jones sued for
defamation.
Maihi told the court that she
stood by the words she had used
in the petition. She had been angered and upset “as
a Māori woman and as the mother of a Māori son”
by the column. A film-maker, she has a bachelor of
Māori performing arts and lives in Toronto where
she said the themes of her work were “around colo-
nial oppression”.
In court, both Jones and Maihi presented as con-
fident, intelligent, articulate and sincere witnesses.
Both have Māori children. Jones’ late first wife was
Māori and they had two children together. MaihiCULTURE
CLASH
In the High Court at Wellington, Sir Robert
Edward Jones v Renae Maihi felt as much about
racism as about defamation – before the plaintiff
halted proceedings. by JOANNE BLACK ● photograph by RICHARD ROBINSON
N
EWSPIXJONES v MAIHI
“He believes in
freedom of choiceand responsibility
for those choices. His
beliefs can perhapsbe best described
by the principle oflive and let live.”