I have no idea how Sanitarium thought what they were doing was ok and that they would get away with it after the supermarket investigation by comcom and the cost of living crisis being the biggest election issue.
Sanitarium are not a charity. I’ve explained a bit more in another reply here.
In my view, there is nothing wrong with a church having charitable status. However, this status should be based on their charity, not based on them simply being a church.
Hell, we could apply the marae criteria to churches:
b) a marae has a charitable purpose if the physical structure of the marae is situated on land that is a Maori reservation referred to in Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 (Maori Land Act 1993)and the funds of the marae are not used for a purpose other than—
(i) the administration and maintenance of the land and of the physical structure of the marae:
(ii) a purpose that is a charitable purpose other than under this paragraph.
And I’d add a charity should not be allowed to donate to political parties or encourage their members to. A charity should be non-political.
