New Zealand’s stance on ‘people’s vaccine’ for Covid undermines its principled reputation | Max Harris and Phoebe Carr
Newly released documents show government backed a vaccine patent waiver only after the US changed its position
Many New Zealanders like to think of their government as a principled actor in international affairs. Discussions of New Zealand’s role in foreign policy in recent years often laud New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance in the 1980s. There is widespread pride in New Zealand’s “independent foreign policy”, including its decision not to go to war in Iraq in 2003.
But the story of New Zealand’s role in the world, historically and today, is much more complex than these cliches would suggest. Documents just released under the Official Information Act provide another example of a murkier world of New Zealand foreign policy decision-making.
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