Former New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff has criticised talk by the incumbent, Winston Peters (pictured), of leaving the WHO as reckless and harmful. Photo / RNZ, Mark Papalii
By RNZ
New Zealand leaving the World Health Organisation – a possibility hinted at by Foreign Minister Winston Peters – would be “incredibly stupid”, according to one of his predecessors in the role.
Peters says the country needs to take a serious look at whether taxpayers’ money is being spent responsibly on the World Health Organisation (WHO). His comment, made on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, came after the United States withdrew from the organisation.
In his post on Friday, Peters said: “This is what happens when a bunch of unelected globalist bureaucrats are not accountable or responsible with worldwide taxpayers’ money.
“With the US withdrawing its membership, it puts into question the current state of the WHO, its effectiveness and if our taxpayers’ money is being responsibly spent overseas instead of here at home.”
Peters told RNZ’s Morning Report on Monday the WHO was a bloated organisation and not performing the way it should.
“They’ve forgotten what their original mandate was, they’ve forgotten the original parameters and boundaries they were given.
“I think we’ve got a right to question the issue of funding.
“We need to have a serious conversation in terms of accountability to the New Zealand people.”
Peters said it cost New Zealand millions of dollars to be part of the WHO.
“There have been countless occasions when they’ve sought to make rulings or decisions without any reference to the democratic nations that comprise it,” he said.
“Their job is to ensure they are efficiently the servants of the taxpayers worldwide that subscribe and sustain them.”
Washington formally withdrew from the WHO last week, accusing it of numerous “failures during the Covid-19 pandemic” and of acting “repeatedly against the interests of the United States”.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the withdrawal made “the US and the world less safe” and the reasons cited for the US decision were “untrue”.
Speaking to RNZ’s Midday Report, Phil Goff – the Foreign Minister between 1999 and 2005 under former Prime Minister Helen Clark’s Labour-led Governments – said it appeared Peters wanted to “become a mini-Trump”, referring to US President Donald Trump.
“The WHO has done some incredible things in the world. It’s been responsible for the eradication of smallpox, the near-eradication of polio, fighting pandemics. You can’t fight pandemics on a national basis because diseases don’t respect national borders.
“But also [it brings] the advantage of healthcare to those countries that desperately need it, the underdeveloped countries. So we spend, I think there’s an annual assessment of about $2.25 million from New Zealand plus a voluntary contribution – it’s not huge money and it’s vitally important.”
Goff was sacked as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the UK by Peters last year after making comments critical of Trump.
Goff said it was “gutless” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had not ruled out joining Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace”, which the US President wants to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza and had suggested might one day replace the United Nations. Trump has invited the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman to join.
Goff said by not immediately declining the invite, the Government was appeasing a bully.
“When you stand up to a bully, they often have to back off. When you appease them, you just encourage them to keep on doing what they’re doing.
“And we know that what Trump is doing is destroying the fundamental basis of New Zealand foreign policy, which is to have an international rules-based order, not one based on personality and might being right. That is totally against what New Zealand has always stood for.
“And for us to suck up to Trump, to fail to criticise him, even when he says that our soldiers and Nato soldiers in Afghanistan didn’t go near the front line – deeply insulting, deeply hurtful to veterans – that’s a disgrace. And surely our Foreign Minister and Prime Minister should have felt it necessary to speak out and criticise Trump for saying that, as [British Prime Minister Sir Keir] Starmer did, as [French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron] did, as [Polish Prime Minister] Donald Tusk in Poland did.
“We have been gutless in this area and I really feel that, as a person proud of my country and proud of it standing up for the values that we have stood for so often in the past.”
Ten New Zealanders lost their lives during the war in Afghanistan.
Luxon said global institutions needed to be more effective and renew themselves to stay relevant – but there was no question over New Zealand’s membership.
“The WHO plays an incredible role strengthening our healthcare systems, and national healthcare systems throughout the Pacific,” the Prime Minister said.
“New Zealand continues to benefit from the World Health Organisation, but that doesn’t preclude it from continuing to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in delivery.
“I feel the same about the UN frankly – its relevance, its effectiveness needs serious overhauling.”
Luxon said New Zealand’s membership of the WHO and other global organisations was not in question, but they needed to be renewed and strengthened.
“Our challenge is to make them function better,” he said.
They were stuck in a way of working that’s “not relevant to where we are today”.
After the US withdrawal announcement, Tedros told staff in a memo the WHO would cut costs and review which health programmes to prioritise, Reuters reported. The WHO confirmed the memo was authentic but declined to comment further.
– RNZ