Northland candidate for NZ First, Shane Jones is campaigning in some of the smaller centres across Northland and was in Pahia yesterday.

The largest forestry operator in Northland [no free advertising] is a NZ First member and organiser of yesterday’s event.

Jones matched the Party’s determination to root out the trouble makers behind the country’s lawlessness with a message of dignity for young men.

Continuing his work on getting young men into good jobs was important to him personally and a key factor in restoring social development.

He pointed to the successful programme that had seen prisoners coming out of Northland’s regional corrections facility at Ngawha into forestry jobs as a positive step in developing employment in Northland – and reiterated his previous determination to get kids off the couch.

While being forthright about personal responsibility Jones said, “Community needed to come before personal sovereignty”.

During questions Jones was challenged by a person who appeared to be a local Maori activist about sovereignty and a change of flag.

Jones responded by saying, this next term will be about the economy. There would not be any move towards a republic or any attempt to change the flag. He added that these were not decisions NZ First could make – they where decisions that had to be made by the public of New Zealand.

Asked about who NZ First would work with he absolutely ruled out Labour and the Greens. He added that the shape of any coalition could not be determined until after the election but was not charitable in his comments about either Christopher Luxon or David Seymour whom he likened to a “Spoilt Victorian Child”.

No mention was made of the new DemocracyNZ Party led by former National Party MP Matt King however locals attending the meeting described King as having been a lazy MP who had not appreciated the opportunity given to him.

The meeting was attended by a modest number and was held at Charlotte’s kitchen at the end of Paihia wharf.

Jones made mention of the wharf redevelopment work at Paihia, Opua and Russell and reminded attendees that this had only come about through NZ First’s last term in government and that they had been the only party with any real interest in the province.

The meeting concluded with the former MP saying he was part Deli and would take a three year holiday in Croatia if he was not successful in his attempt to return to parliament.

[Deli is an abbreviation of Dalmatian, the collective term for early immigrants from the former Yugoslavia area who had settled in Northland and established an enduring relationship with the local tribes]