Fail-tacular

1) No, it totally has NOT been 9 months since I last posted on here.
2) Yes, I WILL be bringing back the -tacular titles for now, I think, mainly because I have no idea when I will next be blogging.
3) Yes, the new name will not last forever. I'm also blogging for the Wind Orchestra for the next few months. After that I shall be withdrawing from Wind Orchestra and restoring my default name, fatshion_hustler.

But, you can call me Gillian. That too is not a crime.

To the bad news.

I discovered to my dismay two days ago that this had happened:

'Disgust' as anti-vax group's charity status restored
18th Apr 2012
Prominent anti-vaccination lobby group the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) was today celebrating the reinstatement of its charity status.

Sweet cream-filled Merlin, is this REALLY happening?

For those of you not in the know, the AVN is the main anti-vaccination group in Australia (and nobody should let the stuff they say about being a "pro-choice" group fool them; they are an anti-vaccination group). I've been told that anti-vaccination movements are not particularly big in the UK, and certainly in Australia they aren't big to what seems to be the level they are in the US.

Still, the AVN are bad news, and for some inexplicable reason they had until 2010 been allowed to fundraise for their noble child-killing cause. The NSW government then found documentation that showed the AVN had committed many acts of fraud and regulatory breaches. Then some smart chaps from the NSW Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing listened to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, who had issued a public health warning against the AVN, and revoked their licence.

However, it now appears that the Supreme Court felt the HCCC were acting outside their jurisdiction. Public health warning removed, the AVN saw a a chance to ask for their licence back and took it, and the Supreme Court was all like "yeah, sure. What harm can it do?"

Now, first of all, why are the AVNs breaches being ignored here? I would have thought the case to be simple. The AVN committed fraud. Their licence to fundraise was revoked. Case closed. The HCCC may have been acting outside of their jurisdiction, I don't know. But the AVN still committed fraud. Interestingly the very people who discovered the breaches are choosing to ignore them.

Secondly, and possibly more importantly, exactly HOW does the AVN qualify as a charity? Surely the purpose of a charity is to do something to improve the welfare of others. The AVN does no such thing. The AVN spreads lies, dodgy research and other forms of misinformation to as many people as they can get their grimy mitts on, and in doing so helps to cause what is becoming a very, VERY real public health concern.

Gillian angry. Gillian want smash.