KEY POINTS:
New Zealand First MP Dail Jones had a reminder yesterday of how brutal politics can be - he found out at the same time as the public that he had been demoted on the party's list to No 14, a virtually unelectable position.
"The first I knew about the list was when I read it on the website at 1.55pm," Mr Jones said yesterday.
It is possible the phone message left for him by the party president about his ranking on the list was left at a wrong number.
The party's six other MPs are ranked as the first six, then there are newcomers, before Mr Jones at No 14.
The demotion is in contrast to the strong support leader Winston Peters gave at the start of the year for others to stand aside to let Mr Jones replace Brian Donnelly, who resigned to become High Commissioner to the Cook Islands.
Party president George Groombridge did not want to comment last night on why the board had demoted the MP.
He said he had been unable to reach Mr Jones on Monday night to tell him of his list ranking.
He left a voice message on his Browns Bay home number - but Mr Jones never received it.
Mr Jones, a National MP for nine years under Sir Robert Muldoon, was a New Zealand First MP from 2002 to 2005.
He took over the presidency when MP Doug Woolerton resigned in 2005 in protest at Mr Peters becoming Foreign Minister, breaking a promise to the electorate that he would not accept the baubles of office.
Mr Jones' candour, however, has often landed him in trouble.
In 2006, shortly after Mr Peters was laid low by a spider bite in Malaysia, Mr Jones said the party needed new blood to prepare for a new leader to lead the party to the 2011 election.
He spent the first year of his presidency telling branches that the current MPs needed to be cleaned out for fresh faces.
He was the target of a failed bid for the presidency in 2006 by MP Barbara Stewart.
Mr Jones also threatened to demote Mr Woolerton and Mr Donnelly for supporting the anti-smacking law.
But nothing was quite as controversial as the story of the Owen Glenn donation, which began when Mr Jones revealed the party had received a large, mysterious donation in December last year.
It turned out not to be from Mr Glenn - that sum had been confidentially donated back in 2005 - and led to a privileges committee hearing.
Mr Jones, a lawyer, sat on that committee but could not prevent the eventual censure of Mr Peters for knowingly giving false or misleading information on a return to the register of pecuniary interests.
It was Mr Jones' talk about the December donation - believed to be from the Vela family - that led to Mr Peters' press conference and the famous "No" sign.
Mr Jones did not believe he was being punished for his role in the Owen Glenn affair.
"I think it was really a consequence of my statement that we need fresh blood in New Zealand First, which we have and I am very pleased about that development."
The money turned out to have been from the Spencer Trust and its non-declaration to the Electoral Commission is being investigated.
"If they had followed what I had said in February and disclosed the donation, there would never have been a problem."
Mr Jones did not know about secret donations from the Spencer Trust in February or when he was president. He found out about it through media reports.
Mr Peters said the demotion was a party decision, and he did not have a vote or any involvement in the low placing.
"What I will say is I'm confident of getting him back."
He said he had appreciated Mr Jones' experience as a lawyer in the caucus, particularly his work on the Foreshore and Seabed Bill.
- Patrick Gower
