Shame Jones

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, December 13th, 2023 - 24 comments
Categories: climate change, Environment, making shit up, nz first, science, Shane Jones, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

If there is something that I can abide less than a Tory politician it is someone who starts off being radical for the kicks, tacks to the middle as career prospects beckon, becomes a Labour politician because people were impressed with his verbal dexterity, embarrasses the party because not only he is really lazy but he also is that stupid that he uses his Ministerial Credit Card to watch porn, leaves Parliament to take up a doozy of a Diplomatic post offered to him by Murray McCully and the National Party, then joins a total waste space of a party because it was again good for his career opportunities, as part of NZ First supports his former party because there was no other way he would be a Minister, gets voted out of office and then joins a retrograde Government that wants to trash Te Reo for political advantage even though he is a self professed Te Reo expert and then he chooses to join in the sacrificing of the future of the human race because the supporters of his party that operates near the margin of error expect it.

But that is Shane Jones.

Not only is he a member of a Government attacking Te Reo for clicks and kicks.  But he has also become a climate change denier.

From Lloyd Burr at Stuff:

The new Resources Minister and Associate Energy Minister has launched a blistering attack on the “hysteria surrounding climate change”.

Shane Jones used his Address in Reply speech in Parliament to launch an attack on policies enacted by previous Governments to address climate change.

It includes an astonishing revelation to disregard targets agreed to under the Paris Agreement, which aims to reduce our 2030 net emissions to 50 percent below gross 2005 levels.

“We are not going to meet the 2030 dreamy fairytale aspirational figures that will be freeing ourselves of fossil fuels as generating energy,” Minister Jones said.

That 2030 target is part of New Zealand’s trade agreement with the EU and if it’s not reached, there’s a $24 billion reparation bill.

“We’re going to bring rigour and commonsense to the hysteria surrounding climate change,” he said.

“Whatever work has been happening at the Ministry for the Environment – not unlike Thomas Becket the meddlesome priest – that is now stopped.”

Lifting the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration is part of the Coalition Government’s policy manifesto – and Jones spoke of that happening at pace.

“I look forward to leading the debate, changing the law and enabling gas and oil exploration, wealth development to take place yet again in New Zealand.”

Mining on Department of Conservation (DoC) and Stewardship land is also in the pipeline, Jones said.

“We are going to extract the dividend from Mother Nature’s legacy on the DoC estate and those areas previously known as Stewardship land.

“There’ll be a fast track for mining, fast track for energy, that’s the thing coming in your direction,” said Jones.

Here is the video if you have the stomach to watch it.

The hysteria that Jones refers to I presume is the increasing desperate urging from people who actually know what they are talking about telling us that the planet will be irreversibly changed for the worse.  Just this week UN leader António Guterres has stated that “now is the time for maximum ambition and maximum flexibility. Ministers and negotiators must move beyond arbitrary red lines, entrenched positions and blocking tactics”.  Jones should listen to someone who knows what they are talking about.

And yesterday perhaps coincidentally the Government released the Climate Change Commission’s latest report. As stated by Marc Daalder in Newsroom:

The first batch of advice from the Climate Change Commission that the new Government has received makes for awkward reading.

Not because it calls out the coalition’s plans for the climate response, but because it doesn’t mention them at all. The commission’s report on the second Emissions Reduction Plan covering decarbonisation in the second half of this decade reflects government policy as of October 2023.

The awkwardness arises when one realises many of the successes the report discusses (such as electric vehicle uptake due to the Clean Car Discount) will be rolled back by the new Government. Moreover, several of the most urgent recommendations for future action will be scrapped (the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme) or delayed (pricing of agricultural emissions).

As Massey University Professor Robert McLachlan, a computational scientist and climate policy researcher, wrote on social media, reading the report “is like visiting dreamland, or travelling back in time to, say, September 2023”.

Perhaps that’s why the Government withheld the report from media until 5pm on Tuesday evening, when past releases have been provided in advance to allow for better coverage and more detailed reading of the documents. This latest report is 384 pages long.

Letting Shane have his anti science rant on the same day as the commission’s latest report is somewhat jarring.  It cannot be accidental.

I wonder if National knew Jones’ speech was coming.  And if it will allow mining on pristine DOC land.  And the disregarding of the country’s obligations under the Paris Accord.

If the subject matter was not so important this would be quite funny.  Jones’ performance would more appropriately occur in a circus.  Not in the People’s House of Representatives.

24 comments on “Shame Jones ”

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  1. Robert Guyton 1
    13 December 2023 at 11:42 am

    unconscionable

  2. Stephen D 2
    13 December 2023 at 11:59 am

    And don’t forget his fisheries connections. Talleys didn’t back him so he could protect Hectors Dolphins.

    Just wait for the rort, and subsequent protection.

  3. Robert Guyton 3
    13 December 2023 at 12:05 pm

    Borrowing Winston's "rodeo" allusion, this guy's riding roughshod.

  4. Anne 4
    13 December 2023 at 12:40 pm

    I briefly commented on OM shortly before this post appeared that "Shane Jones was dangerous". His "verbal dexterity" (which I described as "flowery language") is deceiving. It gives the impression of someone who knows what they are talking about when, in this case, it is the opposite.

    A little insight into something Jones told my LEC back in the days of PM Helen Clark. It seems that as a child in Northland, he was selected and groomed by the local elders to be their future political representative on the national stage.

    I suspect the extra attention he received all those years ago went to his head.

    Those elders must be spinning in their graves now.

  5. Pat 5
    13 December 2023 at 12:57 pm

    Yes, the quality of our elected representatives leaves a lot to be desired….and has done for a considerable period.

  6. adam 6
    13 December 2023 at 1:03 pm

    So when the next family to die from global boiling threatens Shane Jones. What are we suppose to do? What about the families who have already lost loved ones? What are they suppose to think and do?

    Shane Jones now taking on that responsibility for future deaths, utu is on the table for this man. May God protect his soul, because his brain has left the building

  7. Ad 7
    13 December 2023 at 1:24 pm

    Oddly domestic audience focus with the Minister of Climate Change busy in COP28 hammering out text.

  8. Obtrectator 8
    13 December 2023 at 4:17 pm

    A double-dyed traitor to his race and the environment.

  9. Incognito 9
    13 December 2023 at 5:48 pm

    Thanks, that saves us all from yet another one of my “About the Speech” Posts wink

    However, I can’t help myself in countering the rhetoric in Jones’ Address in Reply Debate.

    Peters has taught his pupil well in demagoguery and Jones is another chip off the block. His speech also has striking similarity to Luxon’s first speech as PM (https://thestandard.org.nz/about-that-first-speech-from-luxon-as-pm/).

    Jones obviously uses emotive language, rhetorical questions, and hyperbole to stir up emotions and appeal to biases & prejudices. At the same time, he also portrays himself as a champion & hero of the people, the regions, and the legacy industries – a legend in his own mind – while demonising the bureaucracy, the environmentalists, and the previous government.

    He makes several claims that are either false or misleading, without providing supporting evidence. For example, he claims that his party will bring “rigour and common sense” to climate change, but he also announces that he will change the ETS, scrap the natural areas and biodiversity policies, water regulations, and the 2030 target for fossil fuel use. He also claims that mining and fossil fuels are necessary for the security and viability of the economy, but he ignores the costs and risks of these activities to the environment and human health.

    And just like Luxon and Peters, Jones resorts to personal attacks, insults, and mockery to discredit his opponents and critics instead of rational arguments and evidence.

    The new coalition-government has fully adopted Trumpian politics.

    • adam 9.1
      14 December 2023 at 6:46 pm

      Mockery never hurt in politics.

      Especially the mockery of those who espouse conspiracy theories as object truth.

      cheekycheekycheeky

  10. Binders full of Women 10
    13 December 2023 at 5:59 pm

    Jones's main crime in my opinion is his constant use of illeism. It drives me mad. Other than that he just seems like one of a list of Maori Labour MPs who have found a different home- Meka, JT, or in the case of Louisa- just treated badly.

  11. Ed 11
    13 December 2023 at 6:02 pm

    As you say, shame.

  12. Ian 12
    13 December 2023 at 8:16 pm

    Jones is a turncoat but he has found his home base.Good to have a dirty politician on your side

    • tc 12.1
      14 December 2023 at 10:07 am

      He sure has and a very useful tool he's going to be for them. Take notes kids it's a master class in arrogance.

  13. Ad 13
    14 December 2023 at 1:29 pm

    48 hours later we can also now read the Jones Experience quite differently:

    Jones was completely undercut the next day by the actual Climate Minister signing NZ up to COP28 text that supports the phasing out of fossil fuels. That hasn't been done before globally. Jones is on his own.

    Jones was also completely undercut by the Minister of Finance gutting Kiwirail's IREX ferry replacement terminal, which Jones had worked so assiduously on for three years. Jones was isolated and Peters didn't support despite being PM as Willis delivered it.

    Jones was also massively undercut by the Auditor General this week coming down on poor quality Ministerial decisionmaking on public funds he was either close to or responsible for. Jones has no financial power in this government and we can wee why.

    The Kermadec Reserve is now back on the table despite Jones thinking he had killed it off in the previous government. They will protest a bit, but this government isn't going to take protests from Maori fishing interests.

    Jones simply isn't where the action is, and we must not fall for Trump-like distraction-bait.

    National is where the power is.

    • Chess Player 13.1
      14 December 2023 at 5:20 pm

      All this could have been avoided of course, if James Shaw had been offered, and accepted, the Climate Change ministership.

      One day this country will pull its big boy pants on and think further than next week – but today is not that day….

      • Incognito 13.1.1
        14 December 2023 at 5:35 pm

        Simply repeating your same lines (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-12-2023/#comment-1980413) doesn’t constitute sound argument. Let us know when you’re ready for big-boy pants.

        • Chess Player 13.1.1.1
          14 December 2023 at 5:44 pm

          But nothing has changed since I said it last time – the absence of action following a sensible suggestion doesn't invalidate the logic of the suggestion.

          I really feel for James – he's sadly doomed to never achieve for the environment what he could have.

          • Incognito 13.1.1.1.1
            14 December 2023 at 6:51 pm

            Indeed, your ‘logic’ was flawed then as much as it is now because it’s based on your blinkered view of a singular issue yet complex issue. That much hasn’t changed. Further, the Greens are not a party like NZF and Shaw isn’t Peters; you don’t seem to know much about NZ politics and the NZ Green Party in particular, which goes a long way explaining your simplistic reckons. Please pull up your boy shorts.