Foreign Minister Winston Peters has ignited a political storm after suggesting New Zealand should reassess its membership in the World Health Organization (WHO), a move one former foreign minister has labelled \u201cincredibly stupid.\u201d Peters\u2019 comments followed the United States\u2019 withdrawal from the organisation, a decision that has sent shockwaves through global health governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Posting on X, Peters questioned whether New Zealand taxpayers were getting value for money, accusing the WHO of being run by \u201cunelected globalist bureaucrats\u201d who lacked accountability. He later told Morning Report<\/em> the organisation had become \u201cbloated\u201d and strayed from its original mandate. New Zealand contributes several million dollars annually to the WHO, a cost Peters believes warrants closer scrutiny. \u201cWe need a serious conversation about accountability to the New Zealand people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US withdrawal, justified by Washington as a response to alleged failures during the Covid\u201119 pandemic, was sharply criticised by WHO director\u2011general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who warned the move made \u201cthe US and the world less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former foreign minister Phil Goff, however, dismissed Peters\u2019 stance as political posturing, accusing him of trying to \u201cbecome a mini\u2011Trump.\u201d Goff argued the WHO\u2019s track record\u2014including the eradication of smallpox and near\u2011eradication of polio\u2014demonstrated its global importance. New Zealand\u2019s annual contribution of around $2.25 million, he said, was modest but vital for supporting vulnerable nations and coordinating pandemic responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goff, who was removed as high commissioner to the UK by Peters last year, also criticised Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for not immediately rejecting US President Donald Trump\u2019s invitation to join a proposed \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d overseeing Gaza\u2019s reconstruction. He called the government \u201cgutless\u201d for failing to challenge Trump\u2019s rhetoric, including comments diminishing the role of New Zealand and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Labour leader Chris Hipkins echoed the criticism, calling the idea of Luxon sitting alongside Vladimir Putin on a Trump\u2011led peace council \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luxon, however, maintained that while global institutions like the WHO and UN need modernisation, New Zealand\u2019s membership is not in doubt. \u201cOur challenge is to make them function better,\u201d he said, emphasising the WHO\u2019s crucial role in strengthening health systems across the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign Minister Winston Peters has ignited a political storm after suggesting New Zealand should reassess its membership in the World Health Organization (WHO), a move one former foreign minister has labelled \u201cincredibly stupid.\u201d Peters\u2019 comments followed the United States\u2019 withdrawal from the organisation, a decision that has sent shockwaves through global health governance. Posting on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[113,319],"coauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-winston-peters"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/winnie.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9002,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8999\/revisions\/9002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8999"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=8999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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