World Health Organisation 'can't pursue woke agendas and pander to Beijing'

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer says the World Health Organisation must stop engaging in "woke agendas" which are "more attune to the arguments in the Democratic Party in the United States".

Mr Downer told Sky News host Chris Kenny the countries that fund the WHO "want reform, want it to be a much more independent, much more forensic and (a) much more focused organisation".

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne have recently called for a global investigation into the coronavirus and into China's mishandling of its spread.

While the World Health Organisation has faced heavy criticism for its handling of the pandemic, particularly in its early stages.

"We want it to get into the hard issues of international health pandemics, epidemics and so on ... we want it to be entirely independent ," Mr Downer said.

"We don't want it to be pandering, as it apparently did do on this occasion, to the communist government in Beijing".

"We want reform of the WHO (and) I think that's what we should demand."

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