Today, A. Johnsen visited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office in Division of Grayndler, delivering a clear message via staff and submitting a formal letter.
Dear Prime Minister,
I would like to know the reasoning behind your decision to grant Equality Australia charitable status, allowing it to access significant tax breaks at a cost to the Australian public.
Previous applications by Equality Australia for charitable status were rejected by the national charities regulator, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court.
After ex-Labor staffer, Anna Brown, contacted Assistant Charities Minister Andrew Leigh, requesting legislative change to grant the body tax-deductible status, you saw fit to intervene and over-ride expert bodies and the courts.
Prime Minister, make no mistake, Equality Australia does not meet the criteria for charitable status. While benevolent work makes up a proportion of what it does, it also acts as a lobby group for the LGBTQI+ community, and undertakes activist actions.
Equality Australia’s website states that it is currently lobbying the Queensland Government to reverse its ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments. Activism.
Equality Australia also acted as amicus curiae for Roxanne Tickle in the Tickle vs Giggle case. To act in any capacity for one side is to demonstrate bias, which means that EA cannot meet the criteria for charitable status.
These are only a couple of examples of the lobbying and activist work undertaken by Equality Australia.
It is extraordinary that you believe you are better informed than both the charities regulator and the courts, and therefore qualified to intervene. That the CEO of Equality Australia is an ex-Labor staffer does not go unnoticed. To use your language, it doesn’t pass the pub test.
Regards,
A. Johnsen