Committee Members
The current PACDAC committee is appointed for a three year term between 2025-2027.
Chair - Hon Todd McClay
The Chair of PACDAC is Hon Todd McClay.
Todd McClay is the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry, Minister for Hunting and Fishing, Minister for Trade, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has been the MP for Rotorua since 2008.
Todd held several Ministerial roles in the Fifth National Government with portfolios including Trade, State-Owned Enterprises and Revenue.
Todd has previously been a diplomat and was the Cook Islands and Niue Ambassador to the European Union. He has worked in business in Europe as well as government and public relations internationally.
Beth Greener
Beth Greener is Professor of International Relations, Massey University. Her research focuses on international security related topics and she has published widely on issues related to peacekeeping, peacebuilding, international policing, gender and security and civil-military relations. Future projects will consider the concept of whole-of-society defence and the impact of AI / autonomous weapons systems.
Dr. Kevin Clements
Kevin Clements is a preeminent academic in the field of peace and conflict studies, disarmament arms control, and human security. He is currently Director of the Toda Peace Institute in Tokyo, Japan. Kevin is also Emeritus Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he served as founding director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies established in 2009. Kevin writes extensively on the integrated nature of threats to human well-being and survival as well as the imperative of non violent politics, reconciliation and peacebuilding. Find Kevin on his Blog, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Martin Donoghue
Martin Donoghue is a former NZ Army engineer who has served with the New Zealand Defence Force in several capacities. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association. Marty has carried out humanitarian mine clearance for the United Nations, humanitarian and private companies in Angola, Iraq, Laos and other countries contaminated by landmines, cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war. He is a New Zealand Red Cross facilitator on the laws of war. Find Marty on LinkedIn.
Olivia Shimasaki
Olivia holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology and first-class Honours in Human Services from the University of Canterbury. Since 2019, Olivia has travelled Japan and Aotearoa, New Zealand, to research nuclear narratives through interviews with test veterans, Hibakusha (a Japanese term used to refer to individuals exposed to an atomic bomb and/or its radiation) and individuals who work with those exposed to nuclear radiation. In 2022, she was selected as a fellow at the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, Austria where she worked for the Department of Safeguards. She is currently employed by The Peace Foundation and the University of Canterbury. Over the past ten years, Olivia has had the privilege to hear oral histories of those directly impacted by nuclear weapons which has inspired her to join their efforts in pursuing peace.
Dell Higgie
Dell was a career diplomat and international law specialist with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade until her retirement in 2021. Over the years, her Wellington-based appointments included: New Zealand’s International Trade Law Adviser; and 6 years as the Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism & Director of MFAT’s International and Security Division. Her overseas appointments have included serving as Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark; and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva.
For the 12 years before retiring she was New Zealand’s global Ambassador for Disarmament. Highlights of this period included leading the NZ Delegation to all rounds of the negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. She was the NZ Chair of the CD in 2015 and was Chair of the Missile Technology Control Regime in 2019-2020.
After her retirement, she continued as an Ambassador-at-Large for MFAT and was Chair of the Geneva-based Voluntary Trust Fund for the Arms Trade Treaty until 2022. From 2022-2023 she served as Chargé at the New Zealand Embassy in Vienna.
Julian Tangaere
Julian Tangaere is a former senior international civil servant and leader with over 25 years’ experience in international and multilateral operations, leading diverse teams to deliver New Zealand’s Antarctic Programme, chemical weapons elimination in Syria, and global non-proliferation regimes under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). He also served as a NZ Army Officer including operational service in the Middle East and the Former Yugoslavia.