New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Political purpose doctrine

  • 9 Nov 2023

    BETTER PUBLIC MEDIA TRUST v ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2023] NZCA 553

    Citation
    [2023] NZCA 553
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    Appeal allowed: advocacy is not per se non-charitable; to qualify under the fourth head the object's public benefit must be assessed by analogy with established charitable purposes and by assessing the ends, means and manner of advocacy; on the facts the Trust's purposes and activities (promoting public, non-commercial media to advance democratic participation, education and social cohesion) demonstrate sufficient public benefit and its manner and means are balanced and educational, so the Trust must be registered as a charity effective from its application date.

  • 31 Aug 2018

    FAMILY FIRST NEW ZEALAND [2018] NZHC 2273

    Citation
    [2018] NZHC 2273
    Court
    High Court

    The Court dismissed the appeal: Family First's primary purpose is advocacy for a specific 'traditional family' model and the evidence fails to show that the advocacy or outcomes it seeks would be a public benefit in the charitable sense; several of its policy aims are contestable or authoritatively non-charitable (eg abortion/assisted dying) and its publications primarily promote a viewpoint rather than objectively advance education, so non-charitable purposes are not merely ancillary and deregistration is justified.