Greenpeace claims court loss as a stunning victory
I think Greenpeace has hired the former Iraqi Minister of Information.
Their release claims:
Organisers of an online campaign aimed at raising the profile of climate change as an election issue, say they have been vindicated by the High Court on crucial points of law.
This morning the High Court released its decision on the Climate Voter website at http://climatevoter.org.nz which the Electoral Commission considered to be an ‘election advertisement’ and therefore subject to a range of legal requirements.
Lawyer for the Climate Voter initiative, Dr Matthew Palmer QC, says the Court’s judgment accepts the core legal arguments made by the Climate Voter groups.
What they don’t mention is that they actually lost the court case!
The High Court ruled that the Electoral Commission was correct in saying their Climate Voter website was an election advertisement.
All this means is that they need to put a promoter statement on the website. But the bigger impact is that this could make it harder for them to claim charitable status, as they are now on the record as running election advertisements.
The court ruling is here.