Sir Bob says ‘sensible’ to halt case for defamation
Jones accepts defendant’s views honestly held, offence genuine
Sir Robert Jones has dropped his defamation case, mid-trial, against filmmaker Renae Maihi, who set up a petition after he wrote an article suggesting Ma¯ori should be grateful to Pa¯keha¯ for existing.
Jones said yesterday he had “discontinued my proceedings against Maihi”, and understood she intended to take down her petition.
“I filed these proceedings because I was deeply offended by Maihi’s allegations.
“I am not a racist,” he said.
“I now accept, however, Maihi’s offence-taking was a sincerely held opinion.
“The parties may never align on what is acceptable humour, however, no malice was intended by either, thus it is sensible to put an end to proceedings.”
The defamation case in the High Court at Wellington related to a petition by Maihi, who called for Jones’ knighthood to be revoked after he said that Waitangi Day should be replaced with Ma¯ori Gratitude Day in an NBR column in 2018.
In the column he wrote that there were no full-blooded Ma¯ori left, and if it were not for British immigration, Ma¯ori would not be alive today.
He also suggested Ma¯ori should bring Pa¯keha¯ breakfast in bed, weed their gardens and wash and polish their cars out of gratitude for existing.
The article was removed from the NBR website days after it was published due to “inappropriate content”.
Maihi yesterday said she “welcomed” Jones’ decision to drop the defamation proceedings, saying it brought an end to a stressful period, but she hoped the conversation about racism would continue.
“This has always been about highlighting the harm and impact that racist language has, both now and historically.
“It is important for us all to remember that language and articles of this nature, whether intentional or not, can and do cause hurt.
“It is important, too, that those on the receiving end of racism have an opportunity to express their feelings.”
She said she would now close the petition but thanked the 90,000 people who signed it. While she and many others disagreed with Jones’ views, Maihi urged people to disagree “without being rude about him as a person”.
Maihi spoke in the High Court at Wellington on Thursday about how denigrated she felt by his column.
“It identified my entire race and suggested they should become servants for a day for Pa¯keha¯,” she said.
“Regardless of whether the suggestion was made seriously, I found the imagery of servitude and slavery that the column evoked, to be offensive and racist.”
Her lawyer Davey Salmon was using the defences of truth, honest opinion and qualified privilege to defend the case.
Cross-examination of Maihi had been expected to continue yesterday, to be followed by lawyer and Treaty of Waitangi expert Dr Moana Jackson to discuss racism and hate-speech later in the trial.
Jones had admitted the previous day he had not fully read the petition, which called for his knighthood to be revoked.
“I’ve never read her petition, I admit that, all I know is that I was aware she was running a petition on the knighthood proposition, which is insulting.”
The case was being heard by a judge alone and Jones was not seeking a monetary payout for the alleged defamation but to have his legal costs reimbursed.
Jones had given evidence to the trial saying he never expected his comments around te reo being a dying language to be “provocative”.
Jones’ lawyer Fletcher Pilditch told the court earlier this week that the millionaire tycoon was a “prolific author” who had been writing for more than 50 years, often with a “humorous” tone.
His Ma¯ori gratitude comments came under a column headline that said “Media Gaffes Part 2 and Flights of Fancy”, which Pilditch said was a “clear indicator” of the humour Jones was employing in his “tongue in cheek” writing.
He also pointed to the subheading in the column, “time for a troll” as another indicator of this.