Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

naturally Senator Abetz would say that—‘and keep Howard in Bennelong.’ Then it lists what John Howard promises and delivers, including improved water resources. The Prime Minister has supernatural powers there, I guess. It goes on to say: ‘Australia has never had it better. Don’t risk a wrecked economy.’ It extols a bit more the virtue of John Howard after 30 years in parliament and then says: ‘Labor in Bennelong, no experience. And, of course, the Greens in Bennelong, ditto. Who is the liar in Bennelong? Not John Howard. We are happy, John.’ This attack on Labor and the Greens in Sydney is authorised by one S Hales at what is called the MET School, which, from the address, we know to be an Exclusive Brethren school. Stephen Hales is the brother of the Elect Vessel, Mr Bruce Hales, who heads up the Exclusive Brethren around the world. They are not short of cash. A lot of their members contribute a lot of money to this sect. I wonder how many of them know where that money, on the face of it, has gone, unless Mr Hales himself put the money in—and, of course, there is no evidence for or against that. I would be very happy to hear from him and to inform the Senate of that. Certainly a lot more than $1½ thousand went into this advertisement in Bennelong. The question arises: where is the record of that? Where is the return, under Australian law, attributing the Exclusive Brethren or, indeed, the member Stephen Hales as the funder of that advertisement?

The point here is that our current electoral laws seem either to have loopholes or to have been broken by the Exclusive Brethren. It is a matter still under investigation. At the Tasmanian election this year, which Senator Milne was talking about, a brochure with my picture on it appeared—and I cannot blame anybody wanting to win votes from doing that!—and underneath the picture it said, ‘What do they stand for?’ and on the back it said, ‘Do you know the Greens policies?’ It then said, ‘Authorised by T Christian of 5 Gofton Street, Scottsdale,’ and above that it said, ‘This has been funded by a group of concerned Tasmanian families.’