Stephen Jacobi

Delighted to be joining @HelenClarkFound as one of three new Honorary Senior Fellows: helenclark.foundation/news/blog/anno… Grateful to @HelenClarkNZ, the Foundation Board and staff team for this opportunity!

@carlworker I agree with the latter part. I’m not sure we”ll ever be in the position of giving any aggressor anything more than a mild headache.

In this part of the world we should concentrate on having the military ability to deter others and guarantee even super powers a bloody nose, and likewise in support of our closest neighbours, but otherwise rely primarily on well resourced and skilled and proactive diplomacy and collective peace building. Lending ourselves to the schemes and paranoias and ambitions of others is a recipe for disaster.

Plenty of bravado, but can you imagine the dismal outlook for Australia’s future if it actually got itself involved in an armed confrontation against China? The end of Australian prosperity. Australia would be a lot smarter investing in vastly scaled up resources directed at peace building instead of weapons and military folk like this guy.

@MCrawshawNZ Yes and the willingness of the Singaporean people to be led in that way.

@StephenJacobi I agree in principle, but worth noting too that we’ve been “studying” the Singapore example since at least 2003 (when I visited on a Knowledge Wave-related study tour) & probably earlier. Main conclusion of that tour was that the secret sauce was political commitment.

I admire Singapore for what it has achieved but their political culture is part and parcel of their “ruthless project discipline”. We have things to learn for sure but Aotearoa is unique - we need to find solutions from within not solely from afar.

*to leave

Deeply sad that Maiki Sherman has been pressured you leave TVNZ. Those who played a part in this should be ashamed of themselves.

@MaikiSherman Best wishes e hoa. You have done the country and your people proud by demanding accountability from politicians. I am saddened that this particular role has ended like this. Kia kaha, kia toa, kia manawanui.

A statement from me…

@LifesABeach_X @BrookevanVelden I’d rather the tools were upped and put to better use.

@StephenJacobi @BrookevanVelden I don’t see anything that remotely resembles an attack in Brooke’s post. The idea that someone should down tools just because they’re leaving is a complete misunderstanding of ministerial responsibility and public service.

I get that this might be news to some writers at the Spinoff, but some of us are committed to working hard right until the day we leave our jobs. 😇 thespinoff.co.nz/society/08-05-…

@TrevorJ24567534 @actparty Three years ago for me. Pretty smooth. There are also interest free loans from banks.

@actparty Complete rubbish - I had mine installed 18 mths ago. No drama or significant delays.

In Australia, 30% of all homes have solar. In New Zealand it’s just 4%. The difference? Bureaucracy. Installing a solar panel here can take months, with eight layers of sign off. Australians get it done in 24 hours. Today, David Seymour launched a regulatory review to cut back the paperwork so you can switch on affordable energy.

@carlworker All the more ridiculous because the UN doesn’t force anything on anyone!

Shane Jones knows better than this. A loser proposition to pull NZ out of the UN system. And imagine Winston without his annual jolly to UNGA in New York!

@amazingmap @MartynPercy Not a public holiday in NZ. We have Labour Day in October.

Countries where May 1st is a public holiday

This interesting analysis is an illustration of why we need serious diplomats to take over the negotiations to secure peace in the Middle East.

@RHFontaine Even if the US can out-last Iran I’m not sure the rest of the world can.

There’s stalemate in the Strait, with the global economy held hostage. The US is considering new options to break the jam: 1. Oil today hit a four-year high. Across the world, inflation is up and growth down. The U.S. is blockading Iranian ports and Iran is blockading the globe. And there is no end in sight. 2. Some are claiming that Iran must cave soon. Its economy, weak before the war, is in shambles. President Trump says Iran is running out of oil storage, and that the backup will “explode” its infrastructure in about three days. He said that four days ago. 3. Betting on Iran’s spontaneous combustion seems like a suboptimal approach to ending the war, to say nothing of reducing energy prices. Tehran has instead proposed a narrow deal to end the blockades. 4. Trump has rejected the approach, rightly worrying that ending the U.S blockade will remove key leverage over Iran, and that future talks on other issues will never bear fruit. So the current approach is to close its ports until Iran submits. 5. But the Iranians retain leverage too, and that’s the problem. Its conventional navy was destroyed but it can still block the Strait of Hormuz. The DIA director recently said that Iran retains thousands of missiles and drones. It is absorbing economic pain but inflicting it as well. 6. A battle of blockades is a bet on the clock: we can hold out longer than they can. Expecting Iran to submit is, however, more questionable than before. From all indications, Iran is now a thinly-veiled military dictatorship. With the IRGC in charge, Iranian agreement on the nuclear file, missiles, support for proxies, and more is virtually unthinkable. 7. Hence the focus on new options, including bombing Iran back to the negotiating table. That, however, poses the same problems as before – attacks on civilian infrastructure harm Iranians but may not move their oppressors. Tehran might retaliate against energy facilities in the Gulf. And there’s no guarantee it’ll work. 8. Some allies are getting testy. The Germany chancellor said that America is being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership, which is not terribly friendly. Trump reacted by threatening (once again) to pull U.S. troops from Germany. He’d do better to elicit a firm German commitment to join a postwar coalition that will secure the Strait. 9. Ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon is a necessary goal. Stopping its support for proxies, capping its missiles, and ending its domestic repression are very desirable ones. But reopening the Strait should be the immediate aim. That probably requires an interim agreement to lift the twin blockades, leaving other issues to be resolved and, critically, keeping in place all the other forms of pressure. Otherwise, the U.S. has simply bet on the clock, and the clock is ticking.

@tmurphyNZ Le mot juste!!

Finlayson pulling his punches: NZ First is an "excrescence" Former National minister urges party to 'declare war' on NZ First rnz.co.nz/news/political…

TVNZ continuing to mention the name and show the image of the terrorist - disgraceful.

@thomas_manch It wasn’t redacted because NZF wanted in the public domain !

Quite a remarkable story for a few reasons, including that such email content got past the OIA redaction pen, and wasn’t 6a’d like everything else is.

HM’s finest hour! A masterful address both in content and delivery - well worth watching !

Wrong, wrong, wrong. The ToW clause has been a standard inclusion for decades. Do your homework!

Loved talking with my friend Wallace Chapman and the Panel with Patrick Phelps and Claire Amos, about tyd India FTA - right at the top of the programme. rnz.co.nz/national/progr…

@SargonLund47984 @Suzyiam We’re not sending them a cheque

@Suzyiam More worried India will pull out and slap tariffs on us as soon as the $33 Billion dollar cheque clears. Lookat what Trump did to us with tariffs, think the next Indian President wont do the same? Furthermore if we pay the 33B we lock ourselves in. This thing is so one sided.

Does anyone know if NZ can pull out of the Indian trade agreement if it is proving to be non-beneficial for NZers?