With the way they operate, can the rest of the world be far behind? From the WUWT tips and notes we have this news.
Will and also John from New Zealand say:
Greenpeace in New Zealand have just lost their court appeal to retain their charitable tax status. It seems that legally they’re now viewed as a political lobby group:
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2011/05/09/greenpeace-too-political-to-register-as-charity-nz-court/
Greenpeace too political to register as charity, NZ court rules
By Paul McBeth
May 9 (BusinessDesk) – Environmental lobbyist Greenpeace of New Zealand Inc. is too involved in political causes to register as a charity, the High Court has ruled.
Justice Paul Heath turned down an appeal last Friday that Greenpeace could register with the Charities Commission after the body rejected its 2010 application.
Justice Heath said Greenpeace’s political activities can’t be regarded as “merely ancillary” to its charitable purposes and that the commission was correct in disqualifying it for registration over the potentially illegal activities.
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Sorry for the brevity… “Woot!”
Can’t they re-apply under the tax exemption for religious organizations instead 😉 ??
Well Sh*t-howdy!
That’s because we know who you are, and where you have been. We will not be paying you to do it again! Charity starts at home not on the high seas, Arggghhhhh me hardies.
In France, we say :
Champagne !…
Who’ll be next? WWF, Sierra Club, or?
Not before time.
Come back French frogmen – all is forgiven…..
Yes! You have no idea how proud I am of my country right now. Maybe the pendulum is starting to swing.
As Greenpeace were recently involved in disrupting a legitimate marine seismic survey in the North Island, this decision is to be applauded.
About bl**dy time!
Wonderful news. Thank you New Zealand Court of Appeal!
Couldn’t have happened to a nastier, more malign, and pernicious organization.
“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
– Paul Watson,
co-founder of Greenpeace
Proud to be a kiwi.
If only the UK would follow. There is a long list of organisations that should be regarded as political and not charitable:
Greenpeace
WWF
Friends of the Earth
etc
etc
Next in the firing libe, human rights groups!
Mailman
Surprising because the wreck was a tourist attaction when last visited; anyhow goodoh stuff. Next job is to stop employing them as advisors and paying them big salaries. They’re really very big in the EU alas.
Now let the rest of the World judge the efforts of this group. There is no way they can be called a ‘charity’!
Sad. New Zealand could have been saved.
sarc
In the UK we have a plethora of fake charities which receive large sums of money from the Government to enable them to lobby the Government. These incestuous circles are used by the Government as “public consultation exercises”, enabling the Government to claim support for policies, support which, in reality, does not exist.
http://fakecharities.org/
Congratulations to NZ for recognising Greenpeace for what it is – a rather nasty political body.
Steeptown says: Now the rest.
May 10, 2011 at 12:10 am
Amen to that
Greenpeace as in give us your “green, please”!
Ironically this could improve their financial position. Although they will no longer be a tax exempt charity, donations and legacies received (episodically) from members of the public don’t count as taxable income, whereas those donations then paid out for “trading” activities is tax deductible!
I was always amused by the story that one of the original founder members of Green Peace left when the ruling ‘commiteee’ attempted to initiate a campaign for a global ban on Chlorine. ‘I tried to explain to them that Chlorine was in fact an Element and you can’t go around trying to ban Elements.’ He said. Then to his credit he resigned!
The other thing that has always struck me about GP is the incredibly clever name which takes the semantic high ground in an instant…how could any ‘sane, rational person’ be opposed to an organization called GREEN PEACE? Becase given the way language works they’d have to be in favour of…BROWN WAR and who would nail their colours to that mast?!
I once talked with someone who got quite ‘high up’ in the organization and this person described an intensely rigid, doctrinaire and controlling hierarchy. The way they described it made me think of a Medieval Monastic set up!
The day they get back to doing what they were founded to do, namely fight specific battles to protect specific bits of the eco system or environment; they will have my tacit support because there’s always some destructive asshole who thinks they can make a few extra dollars by wrecking some piece of the world and I’m against them, I’ll bet most of you are too.
The CO2/Global Warming Project was a natural corollary from the Globalization frenzy that gripped the world at the end of the 20th Century, and that Globalization was in turn the bastard son of the Cold War.
I think the science is settled. We have nothing to fear from PPM of CO2, but to see a quasi-religious phenomenon like AGW concretize like a tumour in the body politic…now that scares me.
Well Done NZ Courts.
About time. Good on New Zealand for leading the way!
Congratulations New Zealand!
Let this be a warming to other environmental groups who overplay their activist hand.
Greenpeace Visa card Only 18.9% APR