Sheepish Shane Jones thanks Winston for his Gold Card and Judith Collins for the boot up the backside

NZ First Deputy leader Shane Jones.

Shane Jones said his dressing down by the Attorney-General for attacks on the judiciary wasn’t what he thought he’d get for his birthday today but he respects Judith Collins and said he has a great working relationship with the National MP.

Jones admitted that “Collins sent him a “clear message” that comments about judges “doesn’t reflect well on Cabinet’s broader collective responsibilities” and she “wants to see an improvement”.

“I’m a Crown minister, and Crown ministers, as the Attorney-General has sought to school me, are bound by the kaupapa of comity,” Jones, a New Zealand First MP.

Today on his 65th birthday, “thanks for the Gold Card Winston”, Jones said, he was a bit more circumspect over his attacks on judges and or judicial panels.

“I was told to taihoa on the judges and judiciary,” Jones told the Herald.

Attorney-General Judith Collins.

“I work well with Minister Collins, and when you work close with someone, you don’t want to have drama and she did tell me: ‘Shane, this is not your first rodeo.

“I told her I was turning 65 on Tuesday and she said ‘excellent, does this reflect a new start in terms of moderation of language’.

“I was born under the new moon, maybe I was howling.

“I went to St Stephen’s and there’s an old line about ageing - the thing that accompanies old age is honour, love and obedience,” Jones said.

Collins’ concerns were raised after Jones commentated that a High Court Judge was a “communist” and that there were “elements of totalitarianism” in the “creep” of some recent judicial decisions.

“We had a positive conversation and today is my birthday so it’s a chance to move forward,” he said.

“Humarika is a word learned from my grandmother and it means there’s a certain dignity in silence.”

Jones is working in the Waikato region today and will attend the tangi of Kīngi Tūheitia tomorrow with his leader and acting Prime Minister Winston Peters.

“First up I want to thank Winston for my Gold Card,” Jones said. “I’ll try not to use it to go to Waiheke because there’s no doctor over there.

“But my lovely wife and whānau have some sort of surprise tonight, then it’s off to Kīngi Tūheitia’s tangi tomorrow.

“At one level today it is just another day and I know I’m prone to throw stains around and there’s truth to old literature that says ‘so young a body with so old a head’.

“I’ve tried to live a lot of my politics through that saying and relate to the body of people coming behind you.”