Shane Jones: Orator or attention-seeker?

NZ First MP is proud of his mastery and so he should be, says expert

He’s known for his florid language and is dubbed in some circles as the Cryptic Crossword, but New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is proud of his mastery of the English language, and a linguistics expert says he should be.

Jones prides himself on his extensive vocabulary. He says that before he went to the University of Auckland in 1978, his Nana Myrtle gave him a Webster’s Dictionary — with synonyms — and said “plough this”.

But his love of language goes back further, though it didn’t come from talking around the dining table. His father, he said, was a taciturn farmer.

“I was encouraged on our local marae to be a speaker, and also by a couple of my relatives who were clergymen,” Jones said.

“When I was at St Stephen’s I won the prize for not only Maori oratory but I got the first prize for several years for English. When I finished St Stephen’s School in 1977 I won the Maori and Polynesian scholarship to help me at Auckland University.

“My Pakeha nana bought me a massive dictionary and she said to me ‘now you’re at university, start ploughing that’. It was a dictionary with synonyms.”

But Jones really got serious about language when he met former Labour Prime Minister David Lange.

“Lange told me a lot of his style of oratory was refined on the back of watching and learning from Methodist preachers who preached on the side of the road in England amidst all sorts of distractions. But they knew how to hold a crowd,” Jones said.

Now a Minister in the Labour-New Zealand First coalition Government, Jones doesn’t have to work as hard to hold a crowd.

As Regional Economic Development Minister in charge of a multibillion-dollar fund and selfproclaimed First Citizen of the Provinces, Jones draws a crowd whenever he goes to a town to speak.

National’s regional economic development spokesman Paul Goldsmith was on the receiving end of some of Jones’ more flippant answers in the House this week. Goldsmith says Jones is sometimes funny but suspects he’s hiding something.

“I do think the wisecracks are a bit of a smokescreen for not actually answering the questions. When you look at what he says, it’s all gibberish,” Goldsmith said.

“I don’t like to be unkind, but I think it’s all about his vanity and attention-seeking and it’s the results I think he sees it very much as a craft and a tool. How lovely to have a politician who loves language. Bronwen Innes that count. Ultimately, he’s doing a serious job and you can be amusing if you are giving substantial answers and then are amusing.

“But just to crack jokes and not actually be responsible for what is a large amount of money and, I think pretty indefensible attacks on public servants, then it’s not so good.”

Jones said the Speaker would have intervened if he thought he wasn’t giving serious answers.

“I don’t think he would tolerate me using artful language to undermine my obligations as a minister in the House.

“You could say some of my answers are a bit like an epigram, a bit like a crossword puzzle. As long as I address the question I don’t need to fully answer the questions,” he said.

And as if to illustrate the point, in answer to a question on how seriously he took his position, Jones softly replied: “I am a child of the provinces, made of both earth and fire.”

Asked if he sometimes thought that his stringing together of a lot of multi-syllabic words resulted in a nonsensical sentence, Jones said language was about everyday life. “Some of what we do in everyday life are bloopers”.

University of Auckland linguistics expert Bronwen Innes studied some footage of Jones speaking. She said his use of language was deliberate and measured, good oration.

“He’s Maori, he’s been on the marae a lot. The measured pace of it and so on, it ties in with Maori oratory,” Innes said.

“I thought the style is about how he wants to present himself as a serious, thoughtful politician. He speaks in nouns a lot. We linguists call that nominalisation. Politicians and bureaucrats love using nouns. They don’t like saying things directly.

“He’s obviously a man who likes language and likes to express himself in more interesting terms and maybe that’s part of his persona too — ‘If I’m going to get attention I’ve got to make it more interesting’.

“I think in New Zealand we don’t care about language particularly . . . I don’t think Shane Jones sees it like that. I think he sees it very much as a craft and a tool. How lovely to have a politician who loves language.”

Jones himself says he would like to be like Cicero, considered Rome’s greatest orator. “But then I realise he was executed”.