Former WA Jehovah Witness charged with alleged historic child abuse offences
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By Witness
Jehovah’s Witnesses facing tax turmoil
The secretive Christian group has begun legal action against the charity watchdog after it quietly revoked the organisation’s tax-exempt status over concerns with its opaque global structure. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content.
I received this alert in my Google feed as well as the exjw who posted it. I am not getting a subscription to the Australian newspaper to verify the article. I'll leave that up to the readers here. I am sure it will come out in other news sites soon. As usual, the organization puts money ahead of the lives of individuals.
This is the copied article supplied by the exjw:
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken legal action against Australia’s charity watchdog after it revoked the organisation’s tax-exempt status over concerns with the religion’s opaque global donations structure and alleged failure to protect vulnerable people.
The organisation’s charitable arm, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, which posted an income of $32m in the year to August 31, has been accused of pushing cash offshore after directors splashed $16m of its total expenses on undisclosed donations and “overseas aid”.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission informed Watchtower in November of its intention to revoke the organisation’s charity status, citing a litany of concerns about alleged contraventions of the Corporations Act and a failure to comply with a host of governance and conduct standards.
Lawyer and abuse survivor Alec Spencer, a PhD candidate at James Cook University, said the ACNC’s decision was comparable to the abolition of the so-called “Ellis defence” in NSW in 2018, which ended the Catholic Church’s long-standing immunity to lawsuits.
“If registration were to be removed, it would serve as a wake-up call for many other religious charities who have systemically failed to protect sexually abused children,” he said.
“The removal of charitable registration would be an extraordinary outcome, both for the commission and the religious charity sector in particular.”
The charity, which is seeking judicial review of the ACNC’s decision in the Federal Court, has been accused of “operating outside of Australia” and breaching its requirement to protect vulnerable people, including children, when conducting operations overseas.
In a statement, Watchtower director Terry O’Brien denied the ACNC had moved to strip the organisation of its charity registration. “The ACNC has assured the directors that they do not intend to revoke Watchtower Australia’s charity status,” Mr O’Brien said.
However, court documents filed last week reveal the ACNC sent a notice to revoke Watchtower’s charity registration to the group’s directors in November.
The ACNC has accused Watchtower’s directors of failing to comply with key conduct standards, including a requirement to disclose conflicts of interest and a requirement to protect children who are accessing benefits under the charity’s programs.
If the court upholds the ACNC’s decision, Watchtower will lose its status as a registered charity and will not be entitled to receive tax concessions, including lucrative tax breaks.
According to an application for judicial review filed by Watchtower, the ACNC’s decision is “unlawful” and an “unreasonable and inappropriate exercise” of its discretion.
The organisation, which has nearly 70,000 members in Australia, has allocated almost $120m from 2014-20 to “donations and overseas aid”.
“As a donor, I would be very troubled by this,” Mr Spencer said. “And as a regulator, their hands are tied due to the differential treatment bestowed on basic religious charities.
“The ACNC could deregister a charity but the decision and why that occurs is not disclosed,” he said. “It allows them to operate in a cloud of secrecy.”
Watchtower argues that the decision contains multiple errors of law, including that the legislation confers “no function with respect to child protection” on the ACNC.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse warned that there were systemic problems within the Jehovah’s Witness religion in dealing with abuse, including a failure to report credible allegations to the police.
The commission heard Jehovah’s Witnesses had documentation of abuse allegations by 1800 children involving more than 1000 perpetrators since 1950.
Former church member and child abuse survivor Lara Kaput said revocation of Watchtower’s charity status would be a “watershed moment” if it were upheld by the Federal Court.
“They were reticent to revoke their charity status because the charity commission knew it would set a precedent, and they don’t want that to happen,” Ms Kaput said.
An ACNC spokeswoman said it was unable to comment on the “particular circumstances of a charity” and whether or not a charity was being investigated.
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By Isabella
The federal government has given institutions named and shamed in the royal commission into child sexual abuse an extra eight years to sign up to the national redress scheme.
It is the second time the deadline has been extended, this time until 2028, a transcript of the parliamentary inquiry into the operation of the scheme shows.
An independent review of the scheme is due to be finished by the end of February which should canvass issues that include further ways to ensure institutions join the scheme.
Of the 158 institutions mentioned at the royal commission, three have not flagged their intention to join.
A further 16 have said they are intending to join but have not yet signed up, and there are 11 institutions that have been assessed as “unable to meet the legislative requirements”.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses is the only national organisation to declare they will not be joining.
Jehovah’s Witnesses abuse survivor and advocate Lara Kaput said it felt like the government was “buying themselves time” while they decide how to handle institutions who have not signed up.
“There is no clear government strategy to make the Jehovah’s Witness leaders accountable that has been shared with survivors,” she said.
Full article:
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By Health and Medicine
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/widespread-overseas-travel-unlikely-for-australians-in-2021/news-story/3d84c7bd3dff15b132e53ebb7e014e7c
Apparently they are getting the oxford 'vaccine' (you know, the one that's only 62% effective?).
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By Witness
"This is my first video. I'm not sure how many videos I will do. I hope to reach out to Jehovah's Witnesses and former JW's in the Missouri area. My reason to do these videos is not to hurt anyone but to bring awareness to the issues that face JW's that are in a high control group."
Please, hear his words. Elders are realizing that as "shepherds", compassion must be regulated according to men, and not according to the Bible.
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By LNN
Australian Soldiers Would Slit the Throats of Afghan Children, and Then Dump Their Bodies in Rivers; 39 Murders Confirmed, Many More Possibly Committed
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/nov/19/australian-soldiers-sas-war-crimes-afghanistan-australia-special-forces-inquiry-brereton-report-released-latest-live-updates
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By Isabella
Some child sexual abuse survivors will miss out on compensation because organisations like the Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to join the national redress scheme.
Religious, community, charity, education and sporting groups that fail to meet Tuesday's deadline to join the scheme will be "named and shamed" and face possible financial sanctions and changes to their charitable status.
The Jehovah's Witnesses refuses to join despite the threatened action and legal service Knowmore expects other survivors will also miss out because the organisation responsible for their abuse has not signed up.
"This will result in survivors receiving nothing," Knowmore principal lawyer Anna Swain told AAP.
Institutions have had two years to opt into the redress scheme, with some Knowmore clients saying "they're punishing us" or "they're waiting for us to die".
Read more:
Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. #childabuse
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By Isabella
Australia's western coast is being battered by a huge storm, with strong winds buffeting the main city of Perth.
Torrential rains and waves of up to eight metres (26ft) are forecast in some areas.
The severe weather is the result of the remnants of tropical cyclone Mangga interacting with a cold front, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
A senior official in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said it would be a "once-in-a-decade" storm.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52787152
REUTERS/ EDWIN VAN BRUGGEN
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Hi Twyla· 1 reply
Thank you for all your hard work. Last time I had difficulty in accessing the material. You then allowed access. This week all downloads again have "unavailable" blocking their access. If you could please let me know how or what I need to do to avoid this each time. That would be appreciated.
William
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