Media Release 23 Aug 2017
Family First NZ says that the Prime Minister Bill English at their recent Forum on the Family in July has challenged the basis of the Charities Board’s intent to deregister Family First.
In response to a question by National Director Bob McCoskrie: “For some reason (the Charities Board are) gunning for us because we believe things like marriage is one man one woman. Do you think that is right?”, the Prime Minister responded:
“Well if they were gunning for you on that basis, then the people doing that would of course have to be removed from the public service because the law is not anything to do with what the advocacy is…”
Family First has instructed its lawyer to file an immediate Notice of Appeal in the Wellington High Court against the Charities Board’s formal decision to deregister Family First NZ because our views about marriage and the traditional family “cannot be determined to be for the public benefit in a way previously accepted as charitable”.
Mr English went on to say;
“You’ve come up against this legal argument as I understand it about advocacy versus actual good works and the charitable definition is focused around good works… Until or unless that law changes, then the people overseeing it have to administer it without fear or favour or any colour to the political argument, the political position that people take… What makes our political world work is people who take views and push them, and push us around, and make us take positions, and make us talk about funding or about regulation of pornography, or whatever… or push us hard on the environment as happens as well. Until the law changes, that’s how it is…”
Justice Collins in the earlier decision in the Wellington High Court in 2015 recognised the strength of Family First’s argument that its advocacy for the concept “…of the traditional family is analogous to organisations that have advocated for the ‘mental and moral improvement’ of society.…”. The Charities Board was also scolded by Justice Collins who said “…Members of the Charities Board may personally disagree with the views of Family First, but at the same time recognise there is a legitimate analogy between its role and those organisations that have been recognised as charities.”
“Contrary to media reports, Family First has not been ‘stripped’ of our charitable status. The deregistration is not effective until 18 September, but under the Charities Act 2005, we can lodge an Appeal with the Registrar of the High Court. And that’s exactly where we’re heading. This is simply a repeat of 2015 when the Charities Board failed to have us deregistered,” says Mr McCoskrie.
“Family First’s stated purposes are clearly charitable. They are confusing the distinction between purposes and activities and seem to be straining to find a basis to deregister Family First – the net effect of their whole approach is just to waste limited charitable and government resources involving taxpayer money.”
California Family Council 21 August 2017 Family First Comment: “Teaching transgender ideology to children amounts to child abuse,” Dr. Cretella (President of the American College of Pediatricians) said. “It disrupts normal cognitive development, and leads many children down the path of unnecessary and dangerous hormone treatments and surgeries. The reactions of fear and confusion among young children exposed to gender bending story books and cross-dressing demonstrations similar to what happened at Rocklin School are predictable.”
With the help of his teacher and under the guidance of his parents, a kindergarten student in Rocklin, California announced his new gender identity to his class in a way that confused and scared some of his classmates, and upset parents of the students. Despite receiving numerous parental complaints, officials from the public charter school defended the teacher’s decision to allow a “transition ceremony,” explaining state and federal laws against discrimination prevented them from stopping what happened.
The incident happened at the end of the school year on June 7 at Rocklin Academy Gateway, a charter school northeast of Sacramento. The parents of a little boy wanted to ensure their son’s kindergarten class accepted his “transition” into a female gender identity, so the boy brought some books on transgenderism for the teacher to read to the class. One of the children’s books, titled “I Am Jazz,” is co-written by a biologically male teen named Jazz Jennings who identifies as transgendered girl. In the book, Jazz describes how he “transitioned” from a boy to a girl after a doctor told him at the age of three that his affinity for colors, clothes, and activities typically associated with girls meant he was transgendered, having “a girl brain, but a boy’s body.”
According to five different parents who heard the same story from their children, once the teacher finished reading the book, the five-year old entered the class bathroom dressed as a boy. After a few minutes, he emerged wearing a dress and girl’s shoes. The children were then told by the teacher the boy’s new “girl name” and that they should think of and refer to their classmate as a girl. (For privacy reasons, the name of the child and his parents are not included in this story.) The parents of other students were not notified this was going to happen and only found out when they heard their children’s reactions at home that night.
We haven’t been deregistered just yet! The media have misinterpreted the impact of the decision by the Charities Board to deregister Family First. They were quick to broadcast the news that we have been ‘stripped’ of our charitable status. The truth is that this is the intention of the Charities Board.
But they had the same intention in 2015 – and thanks to your support – they failed. And we need to help them ‘fail’ again.
To do that, we will be lodging papers this week in the Wellington High Court to stop them – again. The deregistration is not effective until 18 September, but under the Charities Act 2005 (ironically section 59), we can halt the process and lodge an Appeal with the Registrar of the High Court. And that’s exactly where we’re heading. So until the court rules on this issue, and for as long as we fight the issue – which we will ‘all the way’ because of the greater issue at stake of freedom of speech & belief and the role of marriage & family in NZ – then Family First is still a charitable organisation.
You and I can ‘put a spoke’ in their agenda.
It’s very important to understand – this issue is far far bigger than just Family First’s charitable status.
…It is unlikely that Family First will ever find itself defending any issue of greater importance. Deregistration would be a legal victory for those ideologues who would take power away from the family and give it to the state…. Deregistration is a critical issue, but it is not the most significant. The desire for deregistration has its origin in an ideology that redefines the family…
Please take a moment to read his full article by clicking the link below in order to understand what’s really at stake.
Thanks so much for your messages of support and the gifts already made to our Fighting Fund.
The freedom to speak about, believe in, and promote marriage and family is worth the fight.
BBC News 23 August 2017
India’s top court has ruled the practice of instant divorce in Islam unconstitutional, marking a major victory for women’s rights activists.
In a 3-2 majority verdict, the court called the practice “un-Islamic”.
India is one of a handful of countries where a Muslim man can divorce his wife in minutes by saying the word talaq (divorce) three times.
The landmark court decision came in response to petitions challenging the so-called “triple talaq” custom.
The cases were filed by five Muslim women who had been divorced in this way and two rights groups.
Media Release 23 Aug 2017
E’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE.
