Source : the age
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Liberal Party federal president Tony Abbott are enjoying the hospitality of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church this week despite evidence that its elders paid neo-Nazi affiliates and far-right figures to bully and intimidate politicians at the last election.
The church’s public-facing charity, the Rapid Relief Team, is a major sponsor of Abbott and Taylor’s annual Pollie Pedal bike ride, providing breakfast every day of the eight-day tour, which set off from Toowoomba on Saturday.
Taylor, who fell off his bike on the first day of the ride, distanced himself from any alleged criminality as part of the Brethren’s campaign and said, “all members of Pollie Pedal are grateful for RRT’s contribution”.
The church’s members do not vote, and will not eat, befriend or socialise with outsiders under their “doctrine of separation”, but Taylor has previously said the charity plays “an enormously important role in our community”.
There is no suggestion that Abbott or Taylor knew of or supported the Brethren payments to far-right figures. But after this masthead revealed these details of the Brethren campaign, Byron Fay, executive director of political funding group Climate 200, referred the church to the The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission for investigation.
Climate 200, a key financial supporter of teal candidates and a victim of a Brethren-sponsored far-right stunt, asked the commission to probe whether the church or “registered charities operating under or alongside its institutional umbrella” had broken the law.
Promoting or opposing a political party or a candidate for office, and conducting activities that are “contrary to public policy or unlawful” are outlawed under the charities legislation.
More than a dozen Brethren-linked charities have tax-free net assets of more than $295 million – significantly more than Oxfam and Save The Children combined, once their government-funded private school network is included.
Almost all their activities are directed towards helping their own members, not the public.
The church’s spokesman, Lloyd Grimshaw, on Friday denied before a parliamentary committee the church had anything to do with commissioning or paying for the far-right stunts, or election campaign canvassing in general.
Calling it “bizarre” that he was required to answer questions on the matter, he said the thousands-strong, co-ordinated effort at polling booths by Brethren members was simply a volunteering exercise by individual parishioners.
Climate 200 disagreed in its letter to the charities commission. “The synchronised scale, geographic uniformity, and organisational backing suggest institutional co-ordination rather than purely independent, individual volunteering,” Fay wrote in his complaint.
The chair of the Joint Select Committee on Electoral Matters, Labor MP Jerome Laxale, who is leading the grilling of the church over its election involvement, told this masthead that Grimshaw’s evidence before the committee “leaves me with more questions than answers”.
Grimshaw told the committee he represented a small charity called Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Limited, not the church fellowship itself. Laxale said this “puts huge limits around the church’s denials”.
“Hiding behind a narrow definition does not circumvent the requirement for all witnesses to answer questions truthfully,” Laxale said. “The giving of false or misleading evidence is a serious matter, and may be regarded as a contempt of parliament.”
However, after the hearing, the Coalition doubled down on its support for the controversial church. A group of seven MPs, including Nationals leader Matt Canavan, three shadow ministers and senators from five states issued a joint statement describing the inquiry into the Brethren’s activities as a “hyperpartisan witch hunt” by Labor.
The three-page statement described the inquiry as “persecution”, “madness” and a “disgraceful fiasco” and it called for Laxale to be sacked as committee chair.
“Labor’s attacks smack of religious discrimination and are an assault on the basic democratic rights of all Australians,” Canavan wrote.
NSW senator Jess Collins said: “We’re another step closer to Albanese’s communist utopia, where religious freedom is not tolerated.”
The Liberal Party’s own review into the election found its members were too old to volunteer on booths, so “some campaigns were grateful for the assistance” of the separatist Brethren church “support group”.
The Rapid Relief Team confirmed in a Facebook post that it would follow the Pollie Pedal bike ride through “eight locations as riders take on the eight-day journey”.
“We’re looking forward to being part of Pollie Pedal for another year and helping keep riders fuelled along the way.”
The RRT is the church’s only charity that provides a service to outsiders. It was set up with the help of a public relations firm in 2012 and 2013 after the British charities commission began questioning the Brethren’s tax-free status because it did not provide a public benefit.
RRT’s founding helped the church regain charitable status in Britain.
However, it also has a political purpose. In internal church documents, Brethren members are told they are to “engage with a person of influence or status at a local level” to curry favour.
Last summer, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was photographed at an RRT tent at the Victorian bushfires – a fact Grimshaw pointed out during his evidence before the parliamentary committee. The prime minister’s office declined to comment.
In Victoria, the Liberal and National parties have both left open the possibility of working with the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church at November’s state election, saying they do not screen volunteers for their religious beliefs.
One Nation’s state leader, Warren Pickering, said he had not been approached by the Brethren with an offer of help but that he would “engage in good faith with all community groups and organisations that reach out”.
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Michael Bachelard is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X or email.
