Media Release | One Nation's demand to exit WHO embraced by Trump Australia should affirm its sovereignty and withdraw its membership of the World Health Organisation following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the organisation. One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson said her party had been calling for Australia to exit the WHO since 1996, a call now more urgent after revelations of the organisation’s overreaching plans to take over the country’s health system and dictate Australian health policy. “The WHO has been pushing hard for a global pandemic treaty which would enable this unelected international body to effectively take over any Australian response to a future pandemic,” Senator Hanson said. “One Nation won’t stand for Australia signing over its sovereignty by being party to such an agreement. We have no business being a member of a body that does not recognise the Australian people’s ultimate authority over how our country responds to a challenge like COVID-19. “The United States under President Trump has recognised its best interests do not lie with the WHO. Australia’s best interests lie in charting an independent path too – we can have positive and beneficial diplomatic and trade relationships without unelected international bureaucracies compromising our sovereignty. “Australia should review all of its memberships to bodies like the WHO – including the United Nations. Australia may have been one of its original founding members, but the UN has hopelessly lost its way. It’s become a platform for abhorrent regimes to claim legitimacy, a forum of hatred for western countries like Australia, and a tacit supporter of international terrorism. “It’s been said that countries don’t have friends; they have interests. The UNHCR, the UNRWA, the International Criminal Court – are we a member or a party to these unelected world organisations because it is truly in our nation’s interest? “I congratulate Mr Trump for leading by example and putting his nation’s interests before all else. One Nation puts Australia and Australians first.”