Daniel Nalliah, leader of Catch the Fire Ministries and Rise Up Australia, says revocation is ‘a big blow to freedom of speech’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A Victorian religious group headed by the controversial leader of the Rise Up Australia political party has had its charity status revoked by the Australian government.

Catch the Fire Ministries, which is run by pastor and Rise Up Australia leader Daniel Nalliah, lost its charity status amid an investigation into the organisation’s activities and operations, the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.

It’s understood the group lost its status due to its political affiliations with the party.

Under the Charities Act 2013, promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office disqualifies organisations from having charity status.

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Nalliah, who was vying for a Victorian Senate seat at the last election, said Catch The Fire would fight the revocation.

“As far as we are concerned it’s an absolute injustice being done based on the fact that we have a political viewpoint,” Nalliah said on Monday night. “It’s a big blow to freedom of speech. We will not take this seated and we will talk to our lawyers in the next few days”.

Nalliah said he was unaware of the clause in the charities act until October, when Catch The Fire Ministries received a letter from the commission about posts on its website that were deemed political.

Acting commissioner David Locke said revocation was reserved for the most serious cases.

“Where possible, we will work with a charity to resolve the issues we find during a compliance investigation,” Locke said in a statement. “However, where we find serious breaches of the ACNC Act and Governance Standards we will revoke charity status.”

Nalliah has been a speaker at events organised by the anti-Islamist group Reclaim Australia.

