Advocating for the Environment, Charity Law and Greenpeace: A New Zealand Perspective

Abstract

In terms of environmental protection (and with reference to the filming location of the Lords of the Rings), New Zealand has been described as ‘a friend to Middle Earth, but no friend of the Earth’, which is in stark contrast to its international image that it seeks to foster of being ‘100% pure New Zealand’. This article considers the tension between New Zealand’s approach to environmental advocacy from a charity law perspective, and in particular, the way in which charitable advocacy for the environment has been impacted by the limitations imposed on environmental charities through the charity law doctrine of political purposes. In carrying out this analysis, the article tracks the legal evolution of this doctrine and considers whether recent legal changes have resulted in charity law enabling New Zealand to become ‘a friend to Middle Earth, and a friend of the Earth’ through the apparent broadening of the actions that can be taken by environmental charity advocates.