Laura Clarke | |
---|---|
Governor of Pitcairn | |
In office 25 January 2018 [1] –7 July 2022 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Preceded by | Robin Shackell |
Succeeded by | Iona Thomas |
British High Commissioner to New Zealand | |
In office 25 January 2018 –7 July 2022 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Theresa May Boris Johnson |
Preceded by | Jonathan Sinclair |
Succeeded by | Iona Thomas |
Personal details | |
Born | 3 June 1978 |
Alma mater | University of Cambridge London School of Economics [2] |
Occupation |
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Laura Mary Clarke OBE (born 3 June 1978) is the CEO of ClientEarth [3] a global non-profit environmental law organisation. She is a former British diplomat, who served as the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, and the Governor of Pitcairn.
Clarke is the CEO of ClientEarth, having taken over from founding-CEO James Thornton.
Clarke took up her role as High Commissioner to New Zealand, and Governor of the Pitcairn Islands in January 2018. Her previous role was as the UK Government's India Co-ordinator and Head of the South Asia Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. While serving in these roles she was ranked as one of the most influential people in UK-India relations. [4] Other roles included Political Counsellor in Pretoria, South Africa, Chief of Staff to the Minister for Europe, and roles in the Ministry of Justice, British Parliament and European Commission. [5]
Clarke served as non-Resident British High Commissioner to Samoa from March 2018 to December 2019, when the British Government established a Resident High Commission in Samoa. [6]
In her role as High Commissioner to New Zealand, Clarke placed an emphasis on strengthening relations with Māori of New Zealand. [7] In November 2018 the British High Commission employed its first Maori adviser and also a language teacher for Clarke. [8] In October 2019 Clarke expressed regret, on behalf of the British Government, for the killing of 9 Māori during the first encounters with the crew of James Cook’s Endeavour. [9] [10]
In July 2020, Clarke launched UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement Negotiations alongside PM Jacinda Ardern and NZ Trade Minister David Parker. [11]
Clarke hosted the British High Commission podcast, ‘Tea with the High Commission’, with guests including Jacinda Ardern, [12] actor Sam Neill [13] and comedian Eddie Izzard. [14]
As Governor of Pitcairn, Clarke had oversight of governance and economic support for the Pitcairn Islands. She and her husband made a film of her first visit. [15]
Clarke is married to Toby Fisher, a New Zealander, and they have three children. [16]
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to British foreign policy. [17]
Waitangi Day, the national day of New Zealand, marks the anniversary of the initial signing—on 6 February 1840—of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement towards British sovereignty by representatives of the Crown and indigenous Māori chiefs, and so is regarded by many as the founding document of the nation.
Foreign relations between neighbouring countries Australia and New Zealand, also referred to as Trans-Tasman relations, are extremely close. Both countries share a British colonial heritage as antipodean Dominions and settler colonies, and both are part of the core Anglosphere. New Zealand sent representatives to the constitutional conventions which led to the uniting of the six Australian colonies but opted not to join. In the Boer War and in both world wars, New Zealand soldiers fought alongside Australian soldiers. In recent years the Closer Economic Relations free trade agreement and its predecessors have inspired ever-converging economic integration. Despite some shared similarities, the cultures of Australia and New Zealand also have their own sets of differences and there are sometimes differences of opinion which some have declared as symptomatic of sibling rivalry. This often centres upon sports and in commercio-economic tensions, such as those arising from the failure of Ansett Australia and those engendered by the formerly long-standing Australian ban on New Zealand apple imports.
Shane Geoffrey Jones is a New Zealand politician. He served as a New Zealand First list MP from 2017 to 2020 and was previously a Labour list MP from 2005 to 2014.
The Realm of New Zealand is the area over which the monarch of New Zealand is head of state. The realm is not a federation but is a collection of states and territories united under its monarch. New Zealand is an independent and sovereign state that has one territory in Antarctica, one dependent territory (Tokelau), and two associated states. The Realm of New Zealand encompasses the three autonomous jurisdictions of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, and Niue.
George Duncan Raukawa Fergusson is a British diplomat. He was the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa, and the Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, from 2006 to 2010. He was the Governor of Bermuda from 2012 to 2016.
New Zealand–United Kingdom relations are the bilateral relations between New Zealand and the United Kingdom. New Zealand has maintained a close relationship with Britain, since gaining independence from the United Kingdom.
Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. A member of the Labour Party, she was a member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017, and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023.
David Ross Ardern is a New Zealand diplomat and former police officer. He was the Administrator of Tokelau from 2018 to 2022, having previously served as the High Commissioner of New Zealand to Niue from 2014 to 2018, and as Niue's police commissioner from 2005 to 2009.
Dame Alcyion Cynthia Kiro is a New Zealand public-health academic, administrator, and advocate, who has served as the 22nd governor-general of New Zealand since 21 October 2021. Kiro is the first Māori woman, the third person of Māori descent, and the fourth woman to hold the office.
The Administrator of the Pitcairn Islands is the de facto Chair of the Island Council. The officeholder represents the interests of the Governor.
The 2020 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 to determine the composition of the 53rd parliament. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, 72 from single-member electorates and 48 from closed party lists. Two referendums, one on the personal use of cannabis and one on euthanasia, were also held on the same day. Official results of the election and referendums were released on 6 November.
New Zealand and Samoa have had close relations based on a treaty of friendship between the two countries since Samoa became independent in 1962. New Zealand administered Samoa under a League of Nations mandate then a United Nations trusteeship from 1920 to 1961. Both nations are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Harete Makere Hipango is a New Zealand politician. She is currently a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party and sits on the Māori Affairs Committee.
New Zealand–Tonga relations refers to the diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga. Both nations are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Pacific Islands Forum and the United Nations.
The importance of the relations between Germany and New Zealand centers on the history of German migration to New Zealand. Approximately 200,000 New Zealanders are of German descent, and many German tourists visit New Zealand each year. Both nations are members of the Australia Group, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations.
List of events that happened during 2021 in Oceania.
The dawn raids were crackdowns in New Zealand from 1973 to 1979 and then sporadically afterward on alleged illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands. The raids were first introduced in 1973 by Prime Minister Norman Kirk's Labour government, who discontinued them in April 1974. However, they were later reintroduced and intensified by Rob Muldoon's Third National government. These operations involved special police squads conducting often aggressive raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand, usually at dawn and almost exclusively directed at Pasifika New Zealanders, regardless of their citizenship status. Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted and then deported back to their countries.
Iona Thomas,, is a British diplomat who serves as the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the Governor of Pitcairn.