Life with HIV: "Catch the Fire Ministries" loses it's charity status

Tuesday 17 January 2017

"Catch the Fire Ministries" loses it's charity status - links to "Rise Up Australia" party

Sometimes you read something really good in the news, and this folks is a really good story.

Rise Up Australia Party (RUAP) was started a few years ago by the christian fundamentalists here to try to put their fundie bible bashing beliefs into the political system. The glorious leader of the party is a Daniel Nalliah pictured from the RUAP website above.

However he's also the pastor of Catch the Fire Ministries, also pictured from the Catch the Fire church website.

However in Australia you can't be involved in a political party and still claim tax free status. It seems his links to his political party were just too much for the Australian gov body that oversees such matters, henceforth the Catch the Fire Ministries has lost it's status as a charity. Absolutely marvelous!

Catch the Fire Ministries, which is run by pastor and Rise Up Australia leader Daniel Nalliah, lost its charity status amid an investigation into the organisation’s activities and operations, the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.

It’s understood the group lost its status due to its political affiliations with the party.

Under the Charities Act 2013, promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office disqualifies organisations from having charity status.

Nalliah, who was vying for a Victorian Senate seat at the last election, said Catch The Fire would fight the revocation.

“As far as we are concerned it’s an absolute injustice being done based on the fact that we have a political viewpoint,” Nalliah said on Monday night. “It’s a big blow to freedom of speech. We will not take this seated and we will talk to our lawyers in the next few days”.

Nalliah said he was unaware of the clause in the charities act until October, when Catch The Fire Ministries received a letter from the commission about posts on its website that were deemed political.