source : the age
Elders of a wealthy Christian sect secretly paid bundles of cash to far-right activists for an “influence campaign” to disrupt Albanese government appearances during the last federal election.
An investigation by this masthead has uncovered a digital trail of evidence revealing how the church, formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren, mobilised far-right figures around the country to track and heckle candidates from Labor and the Greens, along with independents, as part of a wider multimillion-dollar campaign for then-Liberal leader Peter Dutton.
When far-right influencer Laurence McIntyre yelled at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about immigration on the first day of the election campaign, it looked like just a random attack from the fringes of politics.
But it was one of almost a dozen far-right stunts this masthead has traced back to the Brethren’s dirty tricks campaign. That includes – six political and church sources say – when the prime minister was twice ambushed in his hotel lobby by far-right figures boasting of being fed “private intel” on his location. The church categorically denies any involvement.
Leaked communications, insider accounts and social media footage now reveal the extent of the Brethren’s role in the 2025 election, as a spokesman for the sect, the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, prepares to give evidence on Friday to a parliamentary inquiry examining the scandal.
Four sources independently referred to a “duffel bag of cash” provided by senior Brethren members to a key right-wing figure who flew around the country helping coordinate the “influence campaign”.
The motley crew of agitators enlisted for stunts include McIntyre, who has links to neo-Nazis, as well as fringe politicians and pro-Putin conspiracists. The idea, according to five people with knowledge of the operation, was to disrupt the campaigns of Coalition opponents and push an anti-immigration message using already-notorious figures from outside the church. This would mask the Brethren’s involvement from the public – and from their own flock.
Senior Brethren elders used flight tracking apps to follow Albanese’s plane as it moved from city to city during the campaign, according to four sources who spoke anonymously due to safety concerns. At times, Brethren gophers lay in wait with far-right influencers to follow the prime minister’s car to hotels and events and even joined in the heckling of politicians.
This masthead has sighted internal communications confirming senior Brethren elders were involved in coordinating the stunts, including paying influencers. Thousands of dollars for the headline-grabbing antics changed hands. This masthead has seen evidence of payments behind many of the stunts and sources verify the rest, but has chosen not to name the church figures involved to protect those sources.
Some described cash being handed over in car parks and at “discreet meets” with Brethren or through intermediaries.
The stunts were filmed and splashed across right-wing media and social channels. Some were also posted by conservative lobby group Advance, which itself received $655,000 in political donations from Brethren businessmen last year. But Advance denied knowing who was involved or playing any role in Brethren campaigning.
The Brethren church has itself consistently denied any involvement in the election, conceding that only its individual parishioners campaigned, not the church itself.
Asked about the right-wing agitators, a spokesman said: “If members did donate or have involvement with [any political party or third-party groups], that was under their name not the church’s.” He added that the church “completely rejects antisemitism”.
Key Brethren figures identified in the evidence and approached individually by this masthead denied they had planned, organised or funded the stunts. When asked about tracking Albanese’s plane, one elder said: “Anyone with a flight tracking app can do that.”
Two of the MPs on the committee now examining the Brethren’s conduct at the last election – Labor’s Jerome Laxale and independent Monique Ryan – were themselves targeted in the stunts.
Following the Coalition’s crushing election loss, sources within the church say elders and ordinary members have begun shifting their allegiance to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. They warn that “the Brethren’s well-oiled influence machine” is not finished in politics yet, as an image surfaces showing a member campaigning for One Nation in Victoria last year.
Some within the sect say world leader, “Man of God” Bruce Hales, has signalled approval of One Nation’s policies, though that message has not appeared in his printed ministry. There is no evidence Hales was directly involved in organising or paying for the stunts.
Three church and political sources say senior Brethren members have trained in campaigning with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in the United States. A Brethren business in Iowa hosted an election event in May featuring US Vice President JD Vance.
Concerned Christian businessmen
In early 2025, well before the May election, a few well-placed figures in the hard-right heard of a discreet opportunity. A group of “concerned Christian businessmen” were eager to stir things up on the campaign trail, to set the conditions for a Coalition victory – and they were willing to pay cash.
The Brethren seeking help from some of the “spicier” elements of the right all held influential positions within the church’s hierarchy. The sources say they were referred to as “the client” and often acted through the Brethren company Sante Global.
Between March and the May election day, about a dozen Brethren elders coordinated with far-right figures across the country, mostly using encrypted messaging apps, to pull off stunts targeting Albanese and Labor, as well as “teal” candidates and the Greens in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. At times, a small number of people connected to the Coalition were aware of the Brethren stunts, but sources say staffers didn’t appear to understand the full picture, and the party hierarchy was not involved.
As the effort was ramped up, this masthead has confirmed that a booking was made in the name of Sante Group at a Sydney golf club on April 1, 2025, bringing together state leaders from the Brethren, with a small clutch of their far-right helpers.
In the Brethren’s wider multimillion-dollar election effort for the Coalition, its members turned out to campaign undercover at polling booths in blue Liberal t-shirts despite their usual edict to shun the outside world. But now elders wanted to talk about more creative political strategies.
Among the far-right figures invited was vlogger Chris De Bruyne, who goes by Chriscoveries online. De Bruyne’s wife, Edwina Bull, endorsed posters during the campaign which were linked to the Brethren. These included the mysterious “Make Australia happy again” signs spotted on roadsides that April, reflecting a Brethren call to arms.
For weeks, De Bruyne had already been sharing and distributing many of the stunts in the Brethren operation. Some were carried out by his associates, one a pro-Putin agitator, and another: former Liberal Barclay McGain, who was fired from an MP’s office for posting racist comments in 2019 and now heads CPAC Australia.
Anti-lockdown “freedom party” founder Morgan C Jonas also shared and took part in some of the stunts. Posters he endorsed during the campaign were displayed by Brethren members – and flagged as non-compliant by the Australian Electoral Commission, which confirmed it is investigating wider concerns about Brethren involvement in 2025.
Jonas, who like De Bruyne has been linked to Advance campaigns, refused to answer questions, including about whether he was paid for taking part in the Brethren operation or endorsing their signage.
De Bruyne didn’t respond to requests for comment. The stunts are still prominently displayed on the website of the political lobbying firm he runs, Australian Firebrand, as an example of its recent “campaigns”.
“Private intel”
The influence operation began even before the election, with Jonas targeting Foreign Minister Penny Wong as she attended a forum with the Chinese-Australian community in Box Hill in March 2025. The footage was shared by De Bruyne.
Next, ex-Liberal McGain crashed a Climate 200 event and yelled questions at teals donor Simon Holmes a Court – one of two stunts McGain carried out at candidate forums which were both disseminated online by De Bruyne.
McGain confirmed he’d passed footage of his stunts onto De Bruyne, though he denied being paid for them or knowing they were part of a coordinated campaign for the Brethren. Still, he said he wasn’t concerned they had been used in such an effort, as he thought it was “a good thing for more Christians to get involved in politics”.
On the first day of the election campaign, Albanese was targeted directly, when fringe influencer McIntyre heckled the prime minister at a Brisbane press conference. Among the close-knit stunt operators it was described as an “op”.
McIntyre, who uses the name “What’s News!?” online, later ambushed Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown at a family picnic.
At the same time McIntyre was running Brethren stunts, he was also spruiking separate campaign hijinks online carried out by those he knew in the National Socialist Network, such as the neo-Nazi group’s fake flyer hoax spoofing Liberal party logos. There is no suggestion this stunt was funded by the Brethren.
Approached by this masthead, McIntyre said he had never heard of the Brethren, despite his inclusion in communications with church elders, but did not answer questions about whether he was paid. On the campaign trail, he was often joined in his stunts heckling politicians by another man, an “influencer” this masthead has identified as a long-time employee of a Brethren-owned company.
The stunts didn’t always go to plan. Sometimes agitators, and even Brethren members, were busted before they could sneak into candidate events. Once, multiple sources say, a car with Brethren gophers and far-right associates drew the brief notice of Albanese’s protective police detail while following the prime minister to an event in Queensland.
When the prime minister was ambushed – twice – in his Melbourne hotel lobby by two far-right figures, it raised security alarm bells.
At the time, one of the influencers involved bragged that he was part of a small, coordinated “team” given “private intel” on the prime minister’s location. But he would not say where it came from and did not answer questions this week.
Six political and church sources say both stunts were part of the Brethren’s efforts. “It felt like it was getting dangerous that they did those two,” said one. “But they were happy to let people assume it was the Nazis playing tricks again. If the rank-and-file Brethren found out they were using these grubby tactics, and these kind of people as guns-for-hire … well, it hardly fits the Christian image.”
Watson-Brown said it had been clear that “there was big money and influence” at play during the campaign which “created a really quite sinister vibe”.
On the Coalition side, one source said with some electorates strapped for volunteers, it came down to each candidate’s team to either turn away or let in the “concerned Christians” offering help.
One Liberal MP refused Brethren help when members of the sect arrived at a polling booth in their campaign t-shirts. The next day, the MP recalled seeing the same people turn up in the shirts of the Liberal candidate from a neighbouring seat.
It’s unclear if the Liberal staffers made any connection between the Brethren donning campaign t-shirts and the far-right agitators crashing candidate events to film stunts.
“That was kept so tight to the chest,” one source said. “I don’t think even all of the far-right guys doing the stunts actually understood where the money came from, though some definitely did.”
Since Dutton’s loss at the ballot box, this masthead has been told very little has been said within the Brethren church about their failure to sway the result.
But various political sources say far-right figures and Brethren middlemen involved in the last election stunts have since reached out to smaller parties, including One Nation, to discuss how best to “help” going forward.
A Brethren member has been identified in photos from the last election campaigning for One Nation in Victoria. One Nation did not answer questions on whether they had had any dealings with the church.
In the days before the election, Brethren members were also told to turn out in force for an Advance “ute muster” against Albanese government policies for electric cars, according to internal Brethren communications.
Advance, which has been called to testify to the parliamentary inquiry on Friday into the 2025 election, said it “appreciated anyone who attended” its muster. But a spokesman said Advance had “never received money from a church” directly and “we do not screen our supporters based on their religion.”
Meanwhile, an AEC spokesperson confirmed the commission was now “examining the activities of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and relevant entities and individuals to ascertain whether any entities or individuals had authorisation, registration and/or disclosure obligations under the Electoral Act”.
Electoral integrity expert Joo-Cheong Tham said there was “compelling evidence of a nationwide campaign coordinated by the organisational infrastructure of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church”.
He called revelations about “the covert funding and direction of far-right agitators by the Brethren” another way “in which the church seems to have concealed its large-scale election campaign”.
“It also raises more troubling questions. Why is the church supporting activities whose aim seems mainly one of electoral disruption? Does the church share the views of the agitators it supported?”
It posed a challenge to federal electoral laws and attempts to ensure transparency, Tham said, because the campaign involved coordinating volunteer labour and spending by a number of different entities.
One Coalition source said it was the deception that burned about the Brethren affair. “I don’t want these people hijacking my party!
“This isn’t MAGA America. This isn’t how we do politics.”
All those named in this story were contacted for comment.
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