Activists should pay taxes

The Queensland and federal governments, in the past two years, have removed its public funding. It relies on private donations from individuals and charitable trusts, and work from legal aid. But it retains tax deduction status, which means that the taxpayer subsidises its work.

Part of its sales pitch is "The Galilee Basin (is a) carbon time bomb.'' It declares in its advertising, "The climate change science debate is over and global temperatures are rising. Yet according to the Prime Minister Tony Abbott 'coal is good for humanity'.''

And "Premier Campbell Newman seems to agree and thinks we should have one of the world's biggest coalmines.''

The EDO opposes the Adani Carmichael underground and open-cut mine, railway and port project, which includes building Australia's largest thermal coalmine, in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland.

Apart from the fact coal revenue in Queensland raises between $2 billion and $3bn a year, many taxpayers disagree with the notion that coal should be stopped. So why should they be forced to subsidise the views of a minority who are anti-progress?

Bjorn Lomborg, the "sceptical environmentalist", observed recently that the US has lowered its carbon dioxide emissions and made money by privately investing in fracking for gas. Europeans have lowered emissions hardly at all and lose money on renewables. The US relied on innovation, the Europeans on ideology. Which camp would you rather join?

The Queensland EDO will wheel out the free speech defence, should it lose charity status, but no one has threatened its free speech, and no taxpayer should have to subsidise its participation in public debate.

The Abbott government promised to abolish the Charities Act 2013, which includes advocacy as a charitable purpose. It must make good that promise in a way that makes it clear to the High Court that advocacy is not a charitable purpose. It should deny charity status to the enemies of progress, lest the world leave Australia behind, all the poorer, stranded in a dry canal.