Where Do Politicians Stand On Polygamy? – asks Family First NZ

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a Media Release issued today, Family First NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission,  is asking the question:

Where Do Politicians Stand On Polygamy? …………

Family First NZ is calling for the National, Labour and Green party to state where they stand on the issue of redefining marriage to allow polygamy and polyamory.

“Polygamy and polyamory have been added to the same-sex marriage debate in Australia because the ‘discrimination’ argument being used to argue for allowing same-sex marriage also applies to any number of adults who love each other and want their relationships recognised,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. “At the moment, the New Zealand marriage law does discriminate against three or more people getting married, or a married person marrying another person.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marriage Tagged With: , ,

NZ Charities Commission – to be disestablished – Update

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last night (29 May 2012) the House of Representatives voted by a strong majority (71 to 49) to split the Crown Entities Reform Bill into three: The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2; The NZ Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill and the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill. The first of these, passed through its committee stages on the evening of 23 May (see earlier post). All three will be treated as one piece of legislation when they come before the House for the Final Reading and vote (they are on the Order Paper for today).

The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2, once passed into law will see the Charities Commission disestablished on 1 July 2012 and its functions transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs.

(Note: The Charities Amendment Bill, which came out of the Statutes Amendment Bill No. 2, had its third reading and was passed on 16 February 2012. It has received the Royal Assent).

Filed Under: Announcement Tagged With: , ,

Proposed Adoption Legislation Discriminates Against Traditional Families

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a Press Release issued yesterday, Family Life International NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission, has criticised proposed adoption legislation. The Charity was registered on 28 April 2008 (Reg. No. CC23462)

PROPOSED ADOPTION LEGISLATION DISCRIMINATES
AGAINST TRADITIONAL FAMILIES

It has become extremely difficult for married couples, husbands and wives, to adopt a child in New Zealand. Those approaching adoption services to seek information on how they can become adoptive parents in this country are actually steered towards “lifetime fostering” or legal guardianship only. There is a distinctive anti-adoption attitude and policy coming from the only accepted legal and political adoption service in New Zealand.

We applaud Prime Minister John Key for having “great sympathy” for those wanting to adopt. However he is seriously misguided in his support for adoption legislation being radically changed for same sex couples, even if it is only for the initial reading of that legislation. He declared on national television that as long as the child is loved it doesn’t matter what the sexual orientation of the parents is. This is another anti-traditional family move by the government, lawmakers, and decision makers in this country to break down the traditional and natural family of mother, father and children. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: ,

NZ Charities Commission – to be disestablished

May 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The imminent disestablishment of the New Zealand Charities Commission, scheduled to occur on 1 July 2012, if the Government achieves its legislative plans, has caused some serious concerns among those involved in organisations working in the charities sector. However, some are welcoming the move, in particular some of those who have experienced the downside of the “egregious inner machinations of the complaint-driven deregistration process”, as one aggrieved charity CEO expressed it, with its unreasonable and seemingly blind adherence to an out-dated 400-year old Victorian definition of “charitable purpose”.

A number of influencial media commentators have sounded alarm bells over the last few years as groups such as the highly regarded National Council of Women of New Zealand, Business in the Community Limited (Business Mentors NZ – the nation’s number one not-for-profit mentoring organisation), The Business in the Community Trust,  the Liberty Trust, and many other charities serving the public good; were systematically ‘picked-off’ by the Commission and deregistered. Liberty Trust has been the only deregistered charity to have successfully challenged the Commission’s deregistration decision in the High Court. The Trust was reinstated as a charity on 15 April 2010. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcement Tagged With: , , , ,

Families Commission Funding Slashed – Stuff News

May 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Funding for the Families Commission has been slashed and the number of commissioners cut from seven to one.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett annouced the restructuring today.

Of the $32.48 million funding the Families Commission receives over four years, the Government would use a minimum of $14.2 million over four years to set up a new Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (SuPERU).

The Families Commission would be reduced to a single commissioner and would be governed by a board comprising public sector, philanthropic and academic representatives, Mrs Bennett said. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Families Commission Tagged With:

Adoption Laws Should Be Maintained For Sake of Children says Family First NZ

May 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a Media Release issued today, Family First NZ is rejecting calls for adoption laws to be liberalised.

“The purpose of adoption is not to provide a child to adults, but rather to provide a family to a child,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family Tagged With:

Environmental Defence Society Inc. – a registered charity ‘enforcing’ the law

May 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Environmental Defence Society Inc. ["EDS"] was registered as a charity with the Charities Commission on 18 May 2007 (Reg. No. CC10297).

Its Society’s Rules (amended on 6 May 2003) were first filed with the Charities Commission on 3 November 2011, and the “ojectives” were approved by the Charities Commission Registration Team as constituting  “charitable purposes” under the Charities Act 2005. The Rules are available on the Charities Commission website (www.charities.govt.nz)

Section 2 of the ESA Rules – The Objectives – include:

2. (a) “To exercise the Society’s rights under the Resource Management Act 1991 or under any other applicable laws currently in force in New Zealand including (but without limitation) the right to make submissions, lodge appeals (including appeals on a question of law), apply to become a heritage protection authority or apply for a water conservation order; give notice of its intention to appear and call evidence at proceedings, apply for judicial review, apply for declarations or enforcement orders, or exercise any rights or objection.”

The term “charitable purpose”, as it occurs in the Charities Act 2005, would appear to have  been interpreted in this case by the Charities Commission, as applicable to all the political-environmental advocacy activities engaged in by EDS ….

… including supporting enforcement agencies to uphold such [envoronmental] standards as set out in law and encourag[ing] constructive debate and discussion in this area.

S. 2(c) empowers the charity EDS to exercise rights under applicable law to lodge appeals at all levels of the NZ Judicial System (Law Court and Tribunals), act in the quasi-judicial role of an envornmental authority, and exercise rights or objections to decisions issued by government agencies.

It is somewhat puzzling that a charitable entity such as EDS which received $144,7123 in government grants in the financial ended 31 March 2011, excists to “exercise its rights” to take legal action over the actions or lack of action of government agencies and/or its officers, and engage in such litigation as a registered charity. However, the wisdom of the Charities Commission, to grant charity status to EDS, given the nature of its objective, is no doubt sound and well-grounded.

EDS arguably engages in a level of “political advocacy” when it seeks to have the law changed or upheld on environmental protection matters. Its officers, some of whom are “contracted consultants” working for EDS, would no dobt see themselves as engaged in the “charitable purpose” of “advocating for the New Zealand environment” when it came to involvement in costly litigation. EDS spent $59,058 in “litigation supprt” in the financial year ended 31 March 2010.

EDS funded six full-time and three part-time “contracted consultants” in 2010/11 at a cost of $364,731. Its total income of $555,191 included $144,736 obtained from government grants, and $114,500 from other grants and sponsorship. Its total expenditure was $583,180.

Filed Under: Political Advocacy Tagged With: , , , , ,

ASH anti-smoking “lobby group” and registered charity – attacks Tobacco Industry

May 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The anti-smoking lobby group ASH New Zealand Inc. (“ASH”), a registered charity with the Charities Commission, has vowed to bring the Tobacco Industry “out of the shadows”  by “holding them to account”.  ASH ["Action on Smoking and Health"] – will continue its “attack” on the industry’s appalling record of having been responsible for causing the deaths of about 5,000New Zealanders per year, and expose how some of the industry’s sales reps are “targetting” many young vulnerable Maori and Polynesian girls. It also intends to continue its vigorous campaign against NZ retailers who it accuses of deliberately “enticing” children and young persons into taking up smoking through their immoral retail advertising of the “dangerous, deadly and addictive” product – tobacco.

ASH lobby group spokesperson Mr Ben Youdan has revealed in an interview on TVNZ that in response to anti-smoking lobby groups’ “targetting” of the Tobacco Industry, the industry has  issued “threats” of “law suits” with more anticipated – to be expected he implied – from an industry that “won’t take it [their attacks] lying down”. Attacks on the industry by lobby groups – even if they are registered charities and receive extensive government funding, as does charity-lobby group ASH ($592,892 in 2010/11: see below), are not taken kindly by Tobacco industry barons whose livelihoods are seen to be under threat from the zealous lobbyists. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Political Advocacy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Marriage benefits ignored: Waning rates a warning bell – Challenge Weekly

May 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Challenge Weekly, – New Zealand’s Christian Newspaper, reported on 21 May 2012:

“Family-friendly organisations are concerned that the benefits of marriage are being ignored, after the latest statistics revealed marriage rates were declining in New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand has revealed that there were 20,231 marriages registered in 2011, the lowest number since 2001…

“Family First NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission, ‘wants the Government to develop policies to strengthen and support marriages, remove marriage tax penalties, and introduce tax incentives for marriage’.”

[Such law changes are supported and promoted by a number of lobby groups within the charity sector].

“Bob McCoskrie national director of Family First NZ, said the latest statistics were a warning bell that we ignored the benefits of marriage at our peril as a society.”

For full story See: www.challengeweekly.co.nz

Filed Under: Marriage

Registered charities & “political advocacy” – protests to highlight porn & sexual violence link

May 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

“Demonstrators have marched down Queen Street [Auckland] in front of the controversial Boobs on Bikes parade in an effort to raise awareness of the links between pornography and violence against women and children,” reported The NZ Herald on 20 August 2008.

“Around 60 protesters carried a banner saying “Pornography fuels sexual violence against women and children” as well as signs bearing slogans such as “porn fuels rape“….”

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) which played no part in the protest, only learnt after the event, via the media, that two charities registered with the Charities Commission – The Auckland Women’s Centre Inc. and Stop Demand Foundation – had organised the demonstration against the Boobs on Bikes event. Both charities had applied for and received a permit from the Auckland City Council for their protest march. Both had been registered as charities with the approval of Mr Trevor Garrett and the Charities Commission Registration Team, on 30 June 2008, two months prior to taking to the streets to target the porn promotion parade and its organiser. A third charity Family First New Zealand (Reg. No. CC10094), registered as a charity on 21 March 2007, issued media releases attacking the porn promotion activities of the Boobs on Bikes Parade promoter. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Political Advocacy Tagged With: , , , , ,
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