been referred to as a 'shock jock' due to the style of his presentation, although he personally rejects this term. In January 1993, the International Year of the World's Indigenous People, Jones described the choice of Aboriginal Australian Mandawuy Yunupingu as Australian of the Year as "ridiculous" and suggested Yunupingu had been granted the award because of his "colour or ... history". Later that year, prominent Aboriginal Australian Charles Perkins and Jones clashed in a live TV and radio debate. Jones said Australians are "getting no say when [Aboriginal people] say this is [their] nation; it's not, it's Australia's nation ... [Average Australians] are being asked to pay taxes to fund people who are seeking title to productive land to which they've made no contribution to its productivity". Perkins called Jones racist and a redneck and commented "You've sat on your white bum at 2UE in Sydney all your life so you wouldn't know what goes on out there". On seven occasions between 1990 and 1997, Jones was awarded by Commercial Radio Australia the title Australian Radio Talk Personality of the Year. In 2001 Jones was awarded the Centenary Medal and the Australian Sports Medal, both being awarded for his contributions to sport and the broadcasting industry. In 2002, Jones switched to 2GB as breakfast announcer, reportedly also taking a financial interest in the station. In 2008, Jones' audience numbers began to fall, with competition from ABC Radio 702, although he retained his number one position. In 2011, Jones had an audience share of 19.2 per cent, still the largest for a radio commentator in Sydney. In 2012 Jones retained the largest share, with 18.5% of the Sydney radio audience, although this represented an average number of listeners of just 151,000 out of a listening audience of 469,000 and a possible Sydney audience of 4.1 million, and was down from 185,000 in 2006 despite an increase in population. In February 2013, his audience share dropped to 15.4%. In November 2014, Jones celebrated having the highest share in Sydney breakfast radio for 100 consecutive radio rating surveys. In May 2020 Jones announced he would retire from his role at 2GB at the end of that month. He cited ill health, however some news outlets have stated that it was a forced resignation after making controversial comments about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last year cost his breakfast program large sums