Approximately 2 hours ago, I received a notification from the OLGR that they would, effective Wednesday, October 20th, be revoking the AVN’s charitable status.
They have sent me a letter listing the reasons for this revocation (those reasons are reproduced below) and also the announcement that is being Gazetted today.
(a) that any fundraising appeal conducted by the holder of the authority has not been conducted in good faith for charitable purposes
The Organisation has failed to publish a disclaimer on its website as recommended by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). This has resulted in an unacceptable risk of potential donors to the Organisation being misled when making a decision whether or not to make a donation, which has led to appeals not being conducted in good faith.
(c) that any fundraising appeal conducted by virtue of the authority has been improperly administered
The Organisation’s website is misleading in that it may lead people making donations to believe that they are donating to a cause which promotes vaccination whereas the Organisation adopts an anti-vaccination position. When requested by the HCCC to publish a disclaimer on its website the Organisation failed to do so.
(f) in the public interest, the authority should be revoked.
The failure of the Organisation to comply with the HCCC recommendation resulted in the Commission publishing a Public Warning on 26 July 2010 advising that this failure “poses a risk to public health and safety”. In this circumstance it is in the public interest to not permit the Organisation to conduct fund raising appeals under the Act.
As you can see, the OLGR based their entire decision on the HCCC’s demand for us to declare ourselves as being anti-vaccine and putting their disclaimer on our website – two things which we refused to do (they say we failed to do it – there was no failure involved – this was a deliberate move on our part to defend our freedom of communication).
Indeed, instead of changing our current disclaimer to what the HCCC requested, we issued this statement – explaining why the HCCC was wrong and any moves to suppress the AVN were anti-democratic.
I have just sent the following press release to media outlets across Australia. The complainants – all active members of the organisation, Stop the AVN – are just being notified about the OLGR’s decision. Both Stop the AVN and the government will be making their own statements today, I am sure.
I am still trying to get my head around the implications of our loss of charitable status but what I was informed by the OLGR (and I will need to confirm this but for now, I am taking it as read), Wednesday comes, we will no longer be able to accept donations from anyone who is not an AVN member.
So if you were thinking of donating to our organisation, please do so before Wednesday by clicking here if you are not already a member. If you were considering becoming a member or buying a gift membership, please do so ASAP by clicking here! And if you are in a position to donate to us and have been waiting for the right time – this is it! We will need your support to fight these efforts to shut us up and shut us down.
Yours in health,
Meryl Dorey
In addition, the AVN’s press release regarding the OLGR’s decision.
14/10/2010 – For Immediate Release:
For over two years, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), a national volunteer-run health lobby and support group, has been under attack. Our message of individual informed health choice conflicts with the government’s policy which is pro-mass vaccination.
Part of this attack has included complaints to the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (OLGR), the body that oversees charities.
Earlier this year, the OLGR audited the AVN. It found several errors with our bookeeping system and some minor problems with the way in which we accounted for fundraising income. The OLGR openly stated that there was no evidence of fraud or criminality. Despite this, it has announced that the AVN’s authority to fundraise is being revoked.
“Had the OLGR based its decision upon the simple errors which were found during our audit – errors which any small, volunteer-run organisation can and does make – it would have been unfair but not unexpected.” says Meryl Dorey, media spokesperson for the AVN. “What makes this decision difficult to understand is that the revocation was based solely upon a questionable decision by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) which we believe is not relevant to the OLGR’s mandate.”
The campaign to shut down the AVN has included:
1. Attacks and threats against our advertisers, members and professional supporters.
2. Death threats against committee members.
3. Hate mail.
4. Abusive phone calls and emails.
5. Numerous vexatious complaints against to various government agencies.
In a democracy, it is always in the public’s interest to allow citizens access to full and accurate information on all issues so they will be empowered to make their own decision. The OLGR’s statement that rescinding the AVN’s charitable status is in the public’s interest seems to confuse the Australian public with the Australian medical industry.
In a true democracy, the government should be defending its policies in the court of public opinion – not by abusing its power by suppressing legitimate dissent.
For further information, Please contact Meryl Dorey on 02 6687 1699 or 0414 872 032.
I personally can’t see what relevance the alleged death threats, hate mail and phone calls have to do this issue. Meryl only trots them out in a desperate attempt to gain sympathy for her cause, whilst neglecting to mention all of the nasty, underhanded stuff she’s got up to as president of the AVN. Trying to unscrupulously obtain a dead child’s medical records, anyone?
Good decision by the OLGR. The sooner the AVN are shut down, the better off we’ll all be.
]]>- Meryl Dorey
I genuinely wonder if Meryl Dorey regrets uttering the above phrase, or whether she actually believes what she said was true.
Reported today, a five year old boy in Adelaide died from whooping cough on Tuesday, September 14. Whilst little detail has been announced, Adelaide Now have reported that the boy was admitted to hospital on September 11th, and died in intensive care on Tuesday.
]]>- Meryl Dorey
Here’s your information Meryl…
Reported in the L.A. Times on September 14th, a ninth infant has been confirmed dead from whooping cough, in what state officials have declared is a whooping cough epidemic.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/ninth-infant-confirmed-dead-from-whooping-cough-in-state-epidemic.html
I’d love to hear Ms. Dorey’s reaction to this epidemic, particularly considering she told Channel 7′s Sunday Night program just over twelve months ago that:
You can see more of Brian Dunning’s work at http://infactvideo.com/ and http://skeptoid.com/, and you can follow him on Twitter here.
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), it was interesting (although not at all surprising) to see that the same “bullshit” arguments are getting used internationally too. Well worth a look.
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Note Meryl’s statement at the beginning of the clip that “vaccination is not sugar water”. This is something that the scientific community and the AVN can finally agree on. Vaccines are not sugar water. But homeopathy is. Homeopathy is an alternative “medicine”, and it’s difficult to describe just how bat shit crazy the concept is. If you’re unaware how homeopathy supposedly “works”, check out the following clip from Richard Dawkins’ 2007 TV documentary, ‘The Enemies Of Reason’.
So, for the record, the president of the organisation that ranks number one on a Google search for “vaccination” endorses magic water as an appropriate and valid way of protecting your children from whopping cough, measles and a range of other “harmless” diseases. Good job.
For more information about homeopathy, check out the website of the Merseyside Skeptics Society’s 1023 campaign, and see what people are saying about #ten23 on Twitter.
]]>I’m not quite sure that Mr. McLeod is the source for these “ridiculous lies”. It seems more likely that these newspapers and radio stations have taken the time to do a little bit of digging into the history of the AVN. Before she established the official AVN blog, Meryl Dorey ran a free blog over at http://nocompulsoryvaccination.blogspot.com/. On July 26, 2009, a post was made on said blog that contained a link to an article on the Pakistan Daily website. The original link has now expired, but the article, titled ‘Flu is not the Biggest Danger it’s the Vaccine‘, can be found by searching through the Pakistan Daily archives. The article, written by David Icke, makes the following claims:
- “The swine flu virus was created in a laboratory to generate mass panic with the specific intention of forcing everyone to have the vaccine.”
- “The Austrian journalist, Jane Bürgermeister, has filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations, Barack Obama, a Rockefeller, a Rothschild, and others, over a plot she uncovered to cull the population with a deadly swine flu vaccine.”
- “There are subsidiary networks of secret societies in every country that answer to the ‘Spider’. Their job is to control their country’s politics, banking, business, military, media, medicine, and so on, and introduce in their sphere of influence the global agenda dictated by the ‘Spider’. Those on the inner levels of this structure are collectively known as the ‘Illuminati’.”
- “The Illuminati plan for the world includes a mass cull of the population and the microchipping of every man, woman and child. Microchips would allow everyone to be tracked 24/7, but it goes much further than that.”
- “Computer technology communicating with the chips has the potential to manipulate people mentally, emotionally and physically. This could be done en masse or individually through the chip’s unique transmitter-receiver signal. Killing someone from a distance would be a synch.”
The above are direct quotes taken from the aforementioned David Icke article, which was endorsed via a direct link posted by Meryl Dorey on the AVN blog in July 2009. And whilst I’m more than happy to acknowledge that these quotes have not come directly from Meryl herself, I think it’s fair to assume that the link to the article demonstrates that she has at least some level of support for the claims made within it.
]]>But consider this for a moment. Stop The AVN is a Facebook group with a member list, at the time of writing, of 2,354 members, which anyone with a Facebook account can join. In addition they have a website that contains little more than some contact info and a link to download a PDF copy of the HCCC report. That’s it. No ABN. No official registration. No head office. No board of directors. No monthly meetings. When Meryl claims that she has received death threats from members of Stop The AVN, she is neglecting (perhaps intentionally?) to mention that this group does not extend past a group of Facebook users. Those users are no doubt members of other Facebook groups, and Meryl could just as easily claim that she has received death threats from members of the Justin Bieber Appreciation Society, or the Stop Japanese Whaling group. Instead she has attempted to draw a link between the Stop The AVN group and the advocation of violence. This is a well known logical fallacy, known as an ad hominem argument. Instead of responding to the claims and arguments put forward by Stop The AVN, she instead attempts to discredit their reputation by claiming they tolerate violence. Naturally this is not true, and the Stop The AVN group can not be held responsible for the (alleged) actions of a group of yet unnamed people.
The media release goes on to cover the same tired AVN rubbish: “The Australian Vaccination Network has been vilified in the media“, “Newspapers and radio stations have been reporting ridiculous lies”, and “The AVN are vaccine whistleblowers”. Meryl has clearly missed the irony in putting out a media release accusing the media of harassment. It will be interesting to see how said media responds to her accusations throughout the coming week.
Nuff said…
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