'This utu [revenge] is best served cold' – Minister Shane Jones vows revenge on forestry rivals

Forestry Minister Shane Jones, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick, and Te Arawa kaumatua Monty Morrison plant a tree at the launch of Te Uru Rakau. Photo / NZME

Outspoken NZ First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has vowed he will have his revenge on those he says attempted to make him "quiver in the corner by running to the media".

He said that as soon as the election campaign starts next year, and his Cabinet responsibilities are loosened, he will be going after his political rivals in the forestry sector.

"Now that they have started this spat, this utu [revenge] is best served cold and I would say, in about nine months' time," he told the Herald.

In July, Parliament will have risen as political parties and MPs campaign for election.

This follows comments Jones allegedly made at a forestry awards ceremony where he said industry players needed to vote for him or they may miss out on the billions he's handing out for provincial growth.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today confirmed she had spoken to Jones about the comments and the pair had acknowledged that his language should be much tighter, particularly when it could be construed that he's speaking as a minister.

"Indeed, my expectation is that that kind of language just isn't appropriate – particularity when you're at a function where those in attendance will believe he's there as a minister," she told her weekly post-Cabinet press conference.

"My view is that it just sails too close to the wind," she said, when asked if Jones had breached the Cabinet manual – the rulebook for ministers.

The NZ First MP is going on a short holiday this week and Ardern said "he will take the Cabinet manual with him".

Speaking to the Herald, Jones said he had spoken to Ardern about his speech.

"It was an issue that we both raised with each other," he said, although unable to remember who raised it first.

But Jones was quick to take aim at those who were at the awards ceremony who talked to the media.

He said he planned to tell them they had overstepped the mark by alleging he was offering them a bribe in front of the 550 people at the event.

"That's grossly untrue but I accept that their feelings were upset."

He wouldn't say who these individuals were, other than they worked for "foreign-owned companies" and that they were "National Party sympathisers".

"When the election comes around and the Cabinet restrictions have been loosened, then I am personally going to deal to these National Party sympathisers who thought that it was a smart idea to try and have me quivering in a corner by racing to the media," he said.

"At the appropriate time, I will deal to them as a big-time, New Zealand First wrestler."