Helen Clark's Diary - June

THCF New report

Bridging New Zealand's infrastructure gap report

REPORT: Bridging the Infrastructure Gap

Funding and financing for a resilient Aotearoa New Zealand

There is a new report out from The Helen Clark Foundation in partnership with WSP in New Zealand on how to address New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit.

The report makes practical proposals on infrastructure funding and financing. It also calls for developing greater cross-party dialogue and agreement on infrastructure priorities.

New Zealand has wasted countless hundreds of millions of dollars on projects on which governments have changed their minds. There needs to be less ideology and more pragmatism in addressing what the priorities are. That way, we will make progress on overcoming the infrastructure deficit.

The link to the report is below ⬇️. Many thanks to author Kali Mercier, Murray Bruges - Executive Director of the Helen Clark Foundation, and WSP New Zealand colleagues.

Please visit THE HELEN CLARK FOUNDATION website to read the report.

PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS

REPORT: No Time to Gamble

Just released: a new report from members of the former Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response on the state of readiness to avert future pandemics. H5N1 and Mpox spread remind us that pandemic preparedness and the capacity to respond rapidly to a pandemic threat is vital. We need a pandemic agreement, more finance, and equitable access to countermeasures.

READ THE REPORT

Gender equality

Global Women Leaders Summit in Bellagio June 2024

GWL addresses issues of women's peace and security

I joined the Global Women Leaders' Summit in Bellagio again in June. We focused on women peace and security issues, and heard from women looking for peaceful resolution to conflict in Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and Yemen. As we were meeting the United Nations was preparing to engage with the Taliban for talks in Doha, without the involvement of Afghan women against whom the Taliban practises gender apartheid. Our group issued a statement calling this out: Global Leaders Urge UN to Include Afghan Women in Upcoming Doha Meeting with Afghan Officials, Taliban The United Nations organisation should itself be acting in ways consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security which calls for women to be engaged at every phase of peacebuilding processes.

Honorary Doctorate

University of St Andrews Honorary Degree

In June I travelled to the University of St Andrews in Scotland where I was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. It was a great honour to receive this recognition from one of the United Kingdom's most ancient and prestigious universities. It was founded in 1413.

The Laureation Address

EXTRACTIVE SECTOR TRANSPARENCY

Transparency and good governance in the extractives sector

I chaired the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) meeting in Geneva in June. EITI continues to do very important work on transparency and good governance in the extractives sector. Beneficial ownership disclosure is required for those implementing the EITI Standard. This is essential to thwarting corruption. See this blog: Transparency trends: Taking stock of beneficial ownership disclosures in EITI implementing countries

AID EFFECTIVENESS

French Airforce delivers UNICEF aid packages

Small donors should fund through multilateral and regional channels

“Fragmented and burdensome: Small European donors clogging Pacific aid channels”. Why don’t small donors do the obvious and fund through multilateral and regional channels? Answer may lie in wanting visibility for UN elections, leading to poor donor practice. Then there’s the geopolitics - western countries wanting to be visible in a region where China is visible. Whatever, donors need to get their act together as Pacific Small Island Developing States’ bureaucracies cannot interface effectively with so many donors. Lowy Institute.

FRench elections

Snap elections in France

Interesting X thread on decision of French President Macron to call a snap parliamentary election. His strategy was to challenge the far right head on in an attempt to blunt their presidential aspirations. In the first round on 30 June, the far right came first. In the second round in July, the left and centre prevailed. How this will play out in the formation of a government remains to be seen.

Philippines

Freedom for Leila de Lima

After more than six years of detention on bogus charges, a Philippine court has dropped last case against former Senator Leila de Lima. This brave woman had sought to investigate human rights violations in Duterte Administration’s violent war on drugs. Amnesty International.

Lady June Hillary

RIP Lady Hillary

RIP Lady Hillary, Sir Edmund Hillary's widow who has passed away aged 92. June gave decades of her life to public service, including as Honorary Consul of Nepal in New Zealand, Patron of New Zealand Nepal Society, through association with New Zealand Himalayan Trust.

A fine tribute to June, Lady Hillary, in ⁦Nepali Times by New Zealand Honorary Consul to Nepal⁦, Lisa Choegyal. June loved Nepal and visited many times, trekking and supporting the Himalayan Trust founded by Sir Edmund Hillary. Wonder funeral for June today (8 June 2024).

NEW ZEALAND

Practical and implementable policies needed

“New Zealand desperately needs a sustained period of good policies, good decisions and good implementation”. Fully agree with Steve Maharey. Time in opposition must be spent preparing practical and implementable policy which has a chance of enduring” New Zealand Herald.

OP ED: Aukus and New Zealand: we should have no part of any military-related arrangements against China

I co-authored an op ed with Don Brash. Opposition to New Zealand entering new military partnerships with implications for our economic security and level of defence spending is coming from across the political spectrum.

“Between the Russia-Ukraine war, the extremely tense situation between Israel and its neighbours, and the tensions in East Asia – on the Korean Peninsula, in the South China Sea and over the status of Taiwan – the geopolitical situation could hardly be more fraught.

In this situation, every country needs to make decisions which are in its own best interests. New Zealand has only two options.

The first is the one that the US wants to see, where New Zealand is much more explicitly tied into the American orbit, going beyond the long-running Five Eyes arrangement to Aukus Pillar II and whatever new “Asian Nato” the US can construct.” The full article has been published by The New Zealand Herald.

Huge concern about the Fast Track Approvals Bill

Colin Keating, Former New Zealand Secretary of Justice and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, says that the Fast Track Bill “would set a precedent for increasingly authoritarian legislation in a spiral which he compared to the rise of modern Hungary or Nazi Germany”. “It’s radical, dangerous, unacceptable, unnecessary, undemocratic, fundamentally flawed.” Newsroom.

RIP Priscilla Williams

RIP Priscilla Williams: an outstanding New Zealand diplomat who served with distinction in a range of posts. Priscilla once hosted me in Tonga giving me insights into how effective our hard working diplomats can be. Priscilla was a great character with a strong sense of humour.