SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

NZ Charities Commission – to be disestablished – Update

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Last night (29 May 2012) the House of Representatives voted by a strong majority (71 to 49) to split the Crown Entities Reform Bill into three: The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2; The NZ Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill and the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill. The first of these, passed through its committee stages on the evening of 23 May (see earlier post). All three will be treated as one piece of legislation when they come before the House for the Final Reading and vote (they are on the Order Paper for today).

The Charities Amendment Bill No. 2, once passed into law will see the Charities Commission disestablished on 1 July 2012 and its functions transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs.

(Note: The Charities Amendment Bill, which came out of the Statutes Amendment Bill No. 2, had its third reading and was passed on 16 February 2012. It has received the Royal Assent).

NZ Charities Commission – to be disestablished

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The imminent disestablishment of the New Zealand Charities Commission, scheduled to occur on 1 July 2012, if the Government achieves its legislative plans, has caused some serious concerns among those involved in organisations working in the charities sector. However, some are welcoming the move, in particular some of those who have experienced the downside of the “egregious inner machinations of the complaint-driven deregistration process”, as one aggrieved charity CEO expressed it, with its unreasonable and seemingly blind adherence to an out-dated 400-year old Victorian definition of “charitable purpose”.

A number of influencial media commentators have sounded alarm bells over the last few years as groups such as the highly regarded National Council of Women of New Zealand, Business in the Community Limited (Business Mentors NZ – the nation’s number one not-for-profit mentoring organisation), The Business in the Community Trust,  the Liberty Trust, and many other charities serving the public good; were systematically ‘picked-off’ by the Commission and deregistered. Liberty Trust has been the only deregistered charity to have successfully challenged the Commission’s deregistration decision in the High Court. The Trust was reinstated as a charity on 15 April 2010. [Read more…]

Social media sites ‘spur to suicide’ – finding of Otago University researchers

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Text messaging and social media sites such as Bebo contributed to the spread of suicide in a spate of teen deaths, a New Zealand study has found.

Otago University researchers found that communication via text message and Bebo were likely to have helped the spread of suicide in an area where eight teenagers killed themselves within a short time span.

The spread of inaccurate information and rumour, the “glorifying” of dead young people through online tribute pages, and the heightened anxiety felt in the community may have all contributed towards copycat suicides, the authors found.

They said suicide prevention guidelines needed to be reviewed to help prevent suicide contagion through social media.

Other suggestions included monitoring social network sites and removing Bebo and Facebook pages.

In the study Adolescent Suicide Cluster and Electronic Communications Technology published in international journal Crisis 2012, Dr Keren Skegg and fellow researchers investigated eight teenage suicides in an unnamed New Zealand city within a relatively large rural district in 2006.

Six of the suicides happened within a six-month period, while the two other suicides – one in a neighbouring district, and the other several months before – were included after the researchers found links.

They found while mainstream media was responsible in its coverage, rumour spread quickly on social networking sites. Inaccurate information about suicide, including the method, spread through Bebo and text messaging – sometimes only hours after the deaths. Fear and anxiety were heightened.

Online tribute pages became shrines to the dead, with overwhelmingly positive messages posted.

FOR FULL REPORT go to ….

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6910338/Social-media-sites-spur-to-suicide

Sourced from The Dominion Post, 12 May, 2012. p. A11.

‘Sin Precinct’ warning over Chows’ brothel plan

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A 15-STOREY brothel complex in the heart of downtown Auckland would lead to an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases, child sex-slavery, moral bankruptcy, drug warfare and a curse on everyone in New Zealand, according to some of the submissions to Auckland Council on the proposal.

Of the 200 submissions on a proposed development called the Penthouse Club, across the road from SkyCity, almost every one was against the project. There was only one submission which even conditionally supported it.

The majority were concerned with issues of morality, criminality and health… [Read more…]

High court overturns $50 fine order imposed by BSA on “prolific complainer”

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Media Matters in New Zealand Inc., a registered charity with the Charities Commission, is pleased that one of its member’s appeal to the High Court against a BSA order issued against him, has been successful, at least in part (see below). Members of Media Matters are “campaigning for a better media”. Their “Vision” is “a Media Environment in New Zealand that is safe to all: free of gratuitous sex, violence, asnd offensive language… so parents can trust what their children see.” Members are also very concerned about inaccurracies in the media (Source: www.viewers.org.nz ).

Fairfax Media reported on 2 May 2012:

A Wellington beneficiary has succeeded in overturning a Broadcasting Standards Authority [BSA] ruling that he should pay $50 costs to deter him from making too many complaints. [Read more…]