Rare signs of democracy in New Zealand — Govt asking if UN Pandemic Treaty is in the national interest?

Joanne Novaby Joanne Nova
Rare signs of democracy in New Zealand — Govt asking if UN Pandemic Treaty is in the national interest?
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The following post focusing on Pandemic Treaty is syndicated from jonova.com.au

Something promising across the Tasman Sea

The newly elected government in NZ is a three party coalition, promising tax cuts and less red tape. It’s barely been sworn in, yet somehow it already has the bright idea of checking whether deals with foreign conglomerate governments (like the UN) “pass the national interest test”. This is the same sort of test foreign conglomerate companies are also supposed to pass.

It sounds brilliant, but also like the bleeding obvious. This is what democratic governments are supposed to do, every deal and every day, right? Yet in 2023, it’s seems like such a radical right wing suggestion. So often our governments are serving someone else…

The conservatives have their sights set (justifiably) on the The UN’s Pandemic Preparedness Treaty. That’s due to be adopted in theory, next May. However The UN International Health Regulations is due to be sneakily accepted by default on Thursday. Hopefully the new NZ govt can fire off a quick letter to get NZ out of that tomorrow, making Australian and other global leaders look really silly (traitorously stupid) if they don’t. See James Roguski for more on that.

New Kiwi Government to Challenge WHO Pandemic Treaty

A new ‘national interest’ test will consider whether the Treaty limits government decision-making.

By Henry Jorn, The Epoch Times

The “national interest test” proposed by New Zealand’s newly formed coalition—including the National Party, ACT, and NZ First—will be applied before accepting any “agreements from the UN and its agencies that limit national decision-making and reconfirm that New Zealand’s domestic law holds primacy over any international agreements.”

The Pandemic Treaty is one example of a UN agreement.

In November 2021, New Zealand and other World Health Organisation (WHO) Member States agreed to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft a Pandemic Treaty.

However, following the conclusion of public submissions on the pandemic treaty on Aug. 11, 2022, a common theme (pdf) was a concern that a new pandemic instrument would require “New Zealand to relinquish control of our domestic decision-making processes during a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) to the WHO, or otherwise reduce autonomy at the individual or country level.”
 

Here in Australia, the Foreign Minister says the WHO will have no legal authority to force things on us.  (It will only have the right to do sneakery, deception, graft and intimidation, with unbridled help from all our academics, media, and our retirement funds).

The Guardian is already campaigning against the new Luxon government, so we know it’s off to a good start.

There is hope.

Image by Ondřej Šponiar

Find more blogs from Joanne Nova here.


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Joanne Nova

Joanne Nova

Joanne is a former Australian Nine Network TV Host, Writer, Speaker and Author. Joanne is a regular expert guest around the world specialising in climate change and science communication. Her writing regularly appears in The Australian newspaper, The Spectator magazine and now here on The Aussie Wire.