‘Paid to stalk’: Brethren and Liberals called to answer for far-right election plot

The world leader of the Exclusive Brethren and his son could be forced to answer questions before a parliamentary inquiry about the church’s covert, multimillion-dollar “influence campaign” supporting the Coalition at the last federal election, as Labor takes aim at the Liberals for defending the sect.

The parliamentary committee examining the 2025 election has agreed to subpoena Bruce Hales and his son Gareth, the most powerful leaders of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, if they will not voluntarily provide evidence about the church’s secret payments to far-right agitators to harass Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other left-leaning MPs on the campaign trail.

Leaked messages from inside the Brethren’s secret “election influence” plot with the far-right showed how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other MPs were targeted.Marija ErcegovacThe revelations sparked acrimonious scenes in Parliament on Wednesday, after this masthead published leaked messages showing that the “election influence” plot led all the way to the top of the church.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke accused Opposition Leader Angus Taylor of going soft in the face of messages showing neo-Nazi associates were paid by the Brethren to “stalk, paid to disrupt and paid to intimidate” politicians.

“Every member of Parliament who hears that should say ‘this is not what Australian democracy is meant to be about’ … But that’s not the reaction from that man [Taylor],” Burke said. “Nothing in his character gives him a moment where he says those things might be unacceptable.”

Liberal MPs accused Albanese of interjecting to call Taylor a “coward” in the resulting uproar, but the Speaker did not hear the remark and the prime minister did not withdraw it.

Burke also tabled an article by this masthead on Wednesday which revealed Taylor employs in his office a former Peter Dutton staffer previously named by Liberal sources as a key point person for Brethren engagement during the election. The man, Sam Jackson-Hope, now an adviser to Taylor, did not respond to questions from this masthead.

Multiple party sources said Jackson-Hope had helped co-ordinate the thousands of church members campaigning undercover for the Liberals at pre-polling booths. There is no suggestion he was also involved in the Brethren’s covert stunt operation with the far-right, which was known to very few in the party.

Taylor did not speak on Wednesday, but has previously joined other senior Liberals in defending the church and its charity work. The day after this masthead first revealed the Brethren’s far-right plot, Taylor attended a charity bike ride sponsored by the church.

Jerome Laxale, who chairs the joint standing committee on the election and was targeted by the stunts himself, said on Wednesday that the committee had agreed to call the church’s top leaders, as the evidence of its spokesman, Lloyd Grimshaw, last month had been “shallow, inconsistent, and, at points, laughable”. Grimshaw had insisted the Brethren had nothing to do with the election at all.

Jerome Laxale led a chorus of Labor MPs lashing the Coalition for their ties to the Exclusive Brethren sect.ParliamentCommittees have the power to compel witnesses to appear, and those who refuse or mislead parliament with false testimony can be found in contempt of parliament.

The church did not respond to questions on Wednesday.

Gareth Hales was among the senior elders in secret chats with far-right figures co-ordinating the stunts, and his company Sante Global, identified in the paper trail of payments and meetings.

The committee will also invite Brethren elder Lester Sharples, named in this masthead’s reporting as a key figure behind the “dirty tricks” campaign, to give evidence, along with three other Brethren members who made submissions. Sharples has confirmed to this masthead that he and other Brethren elders organised the stunts.

In parliament, a chorus of Labor and crossbench MPs have now called on the opposition to “come clean” about any “deals done” with the Brethren in exchange for the sect’s support.

Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said he and other MPs had been the target of abuse and threats and the election revelations now raised more “serious questions about this type of conduct”.

“This is not about religion, nor is it an objection to political participation,” Dreyfus said. “But politics should be free from interference, intimidation, harassment or abuse.”

This masthead’s investigation found Brethren elders tracked MPs in cars and fed “private intel” on their locations to agitators with a history of white supremacy association, in more than a dozen scripted stunts designed to embarrass the Coalition’s opponents. Key far-right figures were also paid tens of thousands of dollars to serve as middlemen in the church’s undisclosed advertising campaign, endorsing Brethren posters and buying ad space.

Teal donor Climate 200, founded by Simon Holmes à Court, who was himself targeted in a stunt, has referred the church to the charity regulator for investigation.

Laxale challenged the Liberals to condemn the stunts and front up to the inquiry themselves. “Defending democracy should be above politics,” he said.

Last month, a dissenting group of seven Coalition MPs issued a statement defending the Brethren, and calling the parliamentary inquiry a witch-hunt and religious discrimination.

On Wednesday, a key Coalition figure on the committee, Ben Small, was thrown out of the chamber for interjecting during Labor’s condemnation of the Brethren campaign. He told this masthead afterwards that “Labor have hijacked” the committee and “for any serious journalist [that] is the question that ought to concern”. ”To target people of faith is a new low from this mob,” Small said, given Labor’s own ties to the thuggish CFMEU.

But teal independent Monique Ryan, who was targeted by a Brethren-funded stunt, called the dirty tricks campaign “chilling to democracy”. She said, “Bruce and Gareth Hales [had] to explain the nature of agreements or contracts between the church and the Liberal Party, neo-Nazi groups and far-right activists” including former Proud Boys they deployed on the campaign trial.

Some Brethren members have also told this masthead they were horrified to see their church using neo-Nazi associates as guns-for-hire to disrupt an election.

The Labor MP for Chisholm, Carina Garland, told parliament that Brethren members “swarming” pre-poll booths for the Liberals was a “disgraceful assault on our democracy”. “I was personally attacked by notorious characters almost daily,” Garland said. This included “vile abuse and intimidation” of volunteers, she said.

NSW senator Tony Sheldon told the chamber: “I know many of those opposite would be horrified to know that they are only one step removed from financing neo-Nazi associated political campaigns ... I am not anti-religion, but I am anti-Nazi. That should be a bipartisan position.”

Taylor’s office was contacted for comment.

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