Young Australian Skeptics

In good news for children everywhere, the New South Wales Minister for Gaming and Racing has today announced that they would, effective Wednesday, October 20^th, be revoking the charitable fundraising authority of the Australian Vaccination Network.

This means that it will no longer be lawful for the AVN to represent themselves as a charity, or to solicit donations from the public.

The initial investigations into the charitable fundraising authority of the AVN by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing have been reported in the press, here and here, for example, if you’re interested in further background information.

Of course, with scarcely believable audacity, Meryl Dorey has responded to no longer being allowed to solicit donations by begging for more donations, asking people to quickly donate money over the next few days, before the revocation takes effect.

According to OLGR sources, liaison with “other government departments” delayed this long-​​awaited decision some weeks. Beyond this, there is no direct evidence of any HCCC influence on the OLGR decision. However, there is a wealth of evidence that the AVN solicits donations for activities which are never done and cannot be done (contributing AVN anti-​​vaccination materials to the Bounty Bags program, for example), fails to provide its accounting reports to the public, and generally fails to conduct the accounting and expenditure of these donated funds with the transparency, honesty and accountability which is to be expected of an organisation which solicits donations from the public. It is for all these reasons — as well as the fact that the AVN represents a danger to public health — that this revocation of the AVN’s charitable fundraising authority is appropriate.

Meryl, like many, has been aware of the impending decision, and supposedly intends to fly to Washington for the Oct. 21 – 24 “Freedom for Family Wellness” woo-​​woo conference, where she will rub shoulders with all manner of quacks of the highest order, including Joe Mercola and Barbara Loe Fisher. Given that the AVN is supposedly going through dire financial straits and is on the threshold of closing down, I can only wonder where the money is coming from to cover Dorey’s attendance at this conference? Well, at least this might give her an excuse for staying away from the Australian media over the coming weeks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 6:59 pm and is filed under AVN, Luke Weston, Meryl Dorey. Tagged as: Australian Vaccination Network, AVN, HCCC, Meryl Dorey, OLGR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.