Clinton Global Initiative Closing Its Doors
Clinton Global Initiative Closing Its Doors And Australian Government Shuts Down Taxpayer Gifts to Clinton Group
With news that the Clinton Foundation is laying
off 22 staffers due to the discontinuation of the Clinton
Global Initiative, and the Australian Government cutting all
financial ties with the sister organisation – the Clinton
Global Health Initiative – it’s time the New Zealand
Government followed suit and cut taxpayer funding of the
controversial Initiative says the Taxpayers’
Union.
Jordan Williams, the Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, says, “In 2014 Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that the Australian Government had committed to five years of financial support for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the sister organisation of the Clinton Foundation. By last year however, that funding had stopped, with the Australian Government jumping ship very soon after Donald Trump’s victory in the US election.”
“NZ Aid should be going to programmes that are the most effective and efficient in achieving our aid objectives. Channelling money through entities established by international politicians is not a proven effective and efficient method of giving aid to those who most need it.”
“It is simply bad practice for MFAT to give Aid money to an entity so closely associated with politics and politicians. The money would be much better going straight to an organisation like the Red Cross.”
“Murray McCully should be fronting up with answers to why New Zealand taxpayers are still funding the Clinton Foundation’s charity when the Australians have stopped.”
Last week the Taxpayers’ Union launched a petition calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully to veto MFAT’s plans to give another $5.5 million of NZ Aid Money to the Clinton Health Access Initiative, an affiliate of the Clinton Foundation. The petition has attracted nearly two and half thousand signatures and can be signed at: http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/clinton_petition
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