Vaccination sceptics group dumped charity status ‘of its own accord’
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Version 0 of 1. An anti-vaccination advocacy group has said it was not stripped of its charity status but chose to give it up to close down one of the biggest avenues of complaints against it. The removal of the Australian Vaccination-sceptics Network’s (AVSN) authority to collect donations was enacted just days after the organisation lost an appeal and was forced to change its name. The AVSN is routinely criticised for its fervent campaigning against the immunisation of children and promoting long-debunked science linking vaccinations to autism. After an investigation by the New South Wales office of liquor, gaming and racing (OLGR) “highlighted a range of potential concerns”, the AVSN was asked to show cause why its authority to raise money under the Charitable Fundraising Act should not be removed. The network then chose to surrender it. The investigation “sourced expert medical evidence challenging the accuracy of information provided on the association’s website in relation to the risks and benefits of vaccination”, the NSW hospitality minister, George Souris, said in a statement. “The investigation highlighted a range of potential concerns, including risks arising from the association’s anti-vaccination advocacy and the potential for misinformation to influence important health decisions resulting in potentially adverse public health consequences.” A spokesman for Souris said the AVSN’s authority would have been stripped anyway had it not been surrendered. The president of the group, Greg Beattie, told Guardian Australia the AVSN inherited its charitable status when it took over the Australian council for immunisation information, and had been trying to get rid of it for years. “We could have surrendered it at any time but the nice staff at the OLGR warned us if we did we wouldn’t be able to raise any funds,” Beattie said. He said the organisation’s constitution and its “broad aims” painted AVSN as a charity but had recently hindered the work of its legal team appealing against the order to change the organisation’s name, which was when the issue of its status was revisited and reviewed. “We’ve been celebrating ever since we shed that licence because the OLGR was a popular avenue of complaint for all of our complainants, [particularly] the Stop the AVN group.” Beattie acknowledged there had been a number of investigations into the AVSN, but said it had “come up OK every time”. The NSW government statement said an authority to raise funds for a “charitable purpose” could be revoked in the public interest, including to prevent deception of charitably minded members of the public. The NSW minister for fair trading, Stuart Ayres, warned the public not to donate to the AVSN in the release and again in statements to the ABC. “We will continue to ensure that they present themselves as an anti-vaccination advocacy,” he said. “That’s entirely up to them to do that. We want to make sure that they don’t ever promote misleading information.” Ayres reiterated that the government made the request for the AVSN to surrender its licence after concerns were found in its investigation. Beattie told Guardian Australia he was adamant the ABC’s report was not a correct quote and Ayres “wouldn’t have said that”. However, when referred to a tweet by Ayres repeating the warning, Beattie said Ayres’s statement seemed “very improper”. “It’s not his place to say that,” Beattie said. “If he did make those statements then I question why he’s meddling in affairs that don’t involve his ministry.” The minister for health, Jillian Skinner, said “while NSW has a very high rate of vaccination among children, we will continue to do all we can to protect those children who remain unvaccinated”. “Forget the scaremongering – there is nothing to fear from vaccination,” Skinner said. |