We were told that the generosity of the rich would make up for cuts to government services. But those at the top are increasingly using dubious “charitable” ventures as vehicles for profit and influence.
Source: Private Charity Has Become Just Another Scam for the 1 Percent
35 dogs at what cost?Frydenberg has been tipped to be the new head of the AFL.
A Melbourne “charity” whose CEO almost certainly broke federal laws by officially spruiking a sitting member of parliament is charging taxpayers four times what it was a decade ago to deliver just three-quarters of the services.
Source: Frydenberg-funded guide dog charity caught swindling taxpayers
We have to stop living in the past, teach science properly in all schools, let people follow any beliefs they choose – as long as they do not harm others in so doing – and teach ethics in all schools, while the money saved from ceasing to give tax benefits to existing bodies – except for genuinely philanthropic activities – should be used to help all the people who are currently struggling to survive. Far more important than religion, is ensuring that all can survive, and that demands attention to climate change!
The Red Cross actively encouraged people it knew were infected with Hepatitis C to continue to donate blood in defiance of basic principles of blood safety. As set out by World Health Organisation guidelines, a safe blood donor is healthy and has no risk factors for HIV or other infections. Knowingly including infected blood into a therapeutic setting is a basic breach. Elizabeth Minter reports Part II of the infected blood scandal investigation.
It’s time to tackle charity rorts, writes William De Maria. The richest schools are charities, as are big businesses like Queensland Sugar Limited. Even the likes of AI Group and NSW Business Chamber Ltd, organisations which fight against higher pay and better conditions for workers, enjoy charity and tax exempt status. Why should taxpayers foot the bill?
Charity Rorts: how private schools and big business rob from the poor to give to the rich – Michael West
There’s a new Koch organization in town. Instead of trying to buy politicians to do the bidding of billionaires, as Charles and David Koch have historically done, this foundation will support community groups trying to cure the miseries of eons—everything from poverty to addiction.
And they’ve got some street cred, having successfully worked with renowned liberal Van Jones to secure legislation to reduce mass incarceration. Billionaire Charles Koch says the mission is this: “We must stand together to help every person rise.”
That is some good stuff, right there. It’s what labor unions have always preached—workers must stand together to gain the collective power essential to pull every one of them up. It works, too. In the middle of the last century, collective bargaining created the great American middle class.
Here’s the thing: Maybe it’s nice that some billionaires are willing to give. But billionaires’ “gifts” too often bear self-dealing strings. And handouts make many workers queasy anyway. They’d rather earn their own money and make their own decisions.
For Americans to achieve real freedom and self-governance, some of the billions that flow into the pockets of the already rich must go instead into the paychecks of the workers whose sweat creates profits. Political bribes, like the $500,000 the Kochs gave Ryan, must be outlawed. And the rich must be properly taxed so that the nation can afford to pave its roads, send its youngsters to affordable, properly government-supported technical schools and colleges, and restore its once-great middle class. American workers want autonomy, not charity, to help every person rise.
This is crazy! So what did they do with the rest of the money? It didn’t trickle down!!
truthcommand.comThe Red Cross has failed massively in its promise to Haiti. After the devastating 2010The Red Cross announced plans to build no less than 130,000 homes for survivors of the earthquake, many of whom were left with absolutely nothing.
There was a generous influx of relief from people all across the world, totaling half a billion dollars, but a series of bungling errors has led to the halted plans, while many doubt if the houses will ever be built.
via Red Cross Built Exactly 6 Homes For Haiti With Nearly Half A Billion Dollars In Donations
On January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake measuring up to 7.0 moment magnitude struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Between 100,000 to 316,000 deaths were reported from the disaster. More than three million people were also made homeless from the disaster. The earthquake was one …
The Shane Warne Foundation is unable to explain what happened to large sums of cash it received from donors who attended its star-studded fundraising events over the last four years.
Source: Shane Warne Foundation unable to explain what happened to cash donations
At this time of year, when so many charities come calling, it is worth asking who benefits from our donations.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission seems more focused on reducing red tape for the sector than scrutinising individual charities.
Source: Shane Warne Foundation a wake-up call for charities regulator
Greens say decision by regulator to remove Waubra Foundation’s tax-deductible status is ‘a victory for science and a victory for public health’
The decision to deregister a controversial anti-wind farming group as a charity proves the organisation has been “pulling the wool over people’s eyes”, renewable energy groups say.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (ACNC) advised the Waubra Foundation that its status as a health promotion charity had been revoked earlier this month. The status gave the organisation, which campaigns on the health effects of wind farms, the ability to receive tax deductible donations.
The foundation will continue to be classified as a charity in two other areas – advancing health and advancing public debate – that do not allow it to receive tax-deductible donations.
The ACNC legislation prevented the commission from discussing the details that led to the decision, it said.
The foundation said it would challenge the ACNC’s decision, and plans to air its grievances in a Senate inquiry into wind turbines.
The Greens lodged a complaint over the foundation’s charity status last year.
“The Waubra foundation should never have been granted status as health promotion charity, and the fact that it has now lost that status is a victory for science and a victory for public health,” Greens senator Richard di Natale said.
“I’m glad that we will no longer be lending legitimacy to an organisation that may be harming people in an effort to undermine an important source of clean and renewable energy.”
The national coordinator of the Australian Wind Alliance (AWA), Andrew Bray, also welcomed the ACNC’s decision, saying it proved the Waubra foundation had “done nothing to improve people’s health”.
“The foundation has deliberately sought to make people fearful of wind farms with scare campaigns and disinformation,” Bray said, adding that the foundation “should now admit that they’ve been pulling the wool over people’s eyes for too long”.
“It’s time for the foundation to admit their mistakes and shut up shop,” Bray said.
Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at Sydney University, said the foundation had “made it their business” to spread fear and mistrust of wind turbines.
“The Waubra foundation is a bunch of mostly landed gentry people whose houses have been threatened by turbines,” Chapman said. “They’re spreading alarming information that upsets people.”
He said the group saw wind farms as “reviled totems of green values which they despise”.
Chapman said numerous reviews, including one released in February by the National Health and Medical Research Council, showed no correlation between wind farms and health impacts.
He said the hysteria around wind turbines was similar to the unfounded concerns expressed in the early 1990s about mobile towers, or the worries about the health effects of televisions in the 1950s.
The Waubra foundation is named after the Victorian town of Waubra, which has become a hub for wind-powered energy, with 128 turbines in the area.
Many of the town’s inhabitants have distanced themselves from the group, and called on it to remove the town’s name from its title.
The group said the decision to strip it of its charity status was ill-informed.
“In making his decision we note that ACNC assistant commissioner David Locke has ignored the condition environmental sleep disorder resulting from excessive night time noise, and the many diseases which are well known to be directly caused or exacerbated by sleep disturbance and deprivation,” it said in a statement.
The ACNC was brought in by the former Labor government in 2012 to regulate the charities sector, but the Coalition had pledged to abolish it before the last federal election.
However, legislation to scrap the body failed to pass the Senate earlier this year.
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