Bob McCoskrie Anti-gay lobby group Family First will head to court to fight ongoing moves to deregister it as a charity, something the organisation believes is the result of its failed campaign against marriage equality. “When a group who promotes the natural family as a fundamental social unit is deemed of ‘no public benefit’, you know a country is in deep trouble,” Family First’s Bob McCoskrie says in a media release this morning. He says someone made a “two sentence complaint” to the Charities Commission on the day the lobby group presented a petition against changing New Zealand’s marriage laws. “The timing of the investigation and final notification was also cynical in that the Commission held off the notification until after the final reading of the same-sex marriage bill, despite the Commission promising that their decision would be made at the end of January of that year,” McCoskrie states. “This was a highly politicised decision which is grim evidence that groups that think differently to the prevailing politically correct view will be targeted in an attempt to shut them up. At the same time, the Commission re-registered the National Council of Women – a decision we supported - despite the similarity of activities with Family First.” He believes the Commission is also ignoring the precedent set in the Supreme Court with the long-running Greenpeace case – it charity won the right to have its political advocacy recognised as a charitable act in a long battle which ultimately went to the Supreme Court. “It is now evident that any charity that speaks up on issues which are deemed incorrect by the political elite are in danger of being penalised. An easy way for opponents of a point of view is for them to use the Charities Commission to muzzle that opinion. That should concern everyone,” McCoskrie says. He says Family First will fight any attempts to deregister it and has lodged an appeal to be heard at the High Court in Wellington next year. McCoskrie was among the most vocal in the campaign against same-sex marriage and resigned as a celebrant in disgust after it was enacted. Family First has also campaigned against same-sex couples adopting, and against schools having more welcoming policies for transgender students, describing transgender youth as having “gender dissatisfaction” and saying they “should not be given special rights which place others at risk”. The Charities Commission has previously stated that Family First was removed from the Charities Register because it does not meet the requirements of a charity.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 8th December 2014 - 8:18am