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

A member opposite asked, ‘What is wrong with that?’ The question is: how much money has been flowing from the Exclusive Brethren to the Liberal Party and to other political entities? I have asked the Electoral Commission to look into the Exclusive Brethren’s very big role in the last election campaign, and they have yet to report although it is 18 months down the line. What we do know is that there is extensive advertising by the members of the Exclusive Brethren in Bennelong—in the Prime Minister’s own seat, where the Elect Vessel lives—and Parramatta, and members of the extended family of the Elect Vessel were directly involved in the election campaign.

There was also state-wide advertising in Tasmania—not declared to be coming from this very narrow-minded and focused political sect but as if it were part of an unnamed entity coming from a direction other than this exclusive church. The question is: what is the return that comes to the Exclusive Brethren, this group which bans its members from fiction novels, magazines, tapes, CDs, radios, TVs, videos, stereos and reading the Australian newspaper? It has enforced, according to the Sunday Tasmanian, that women must sit behind the men in church, only church leaders can give permission to marry and single women may work provided they have no authority over men but married women may not.

The fact is that the Liberal government opposite is in full voice today because it has something to hide and the government members do not want this put to public scrutiny. It is part of the control of the Senate and it says, ‘We are going to defend our interests and our connections between the very powerful and wealthy members of this sect and government operatives.’ We know that in the run-up to the Tasmanian elections, the convenor of the election campaign for the Liberals met with Exclusive Brethren members in Tasmania and a multithousand dollar advertising campaign against the Greens took place in the last election. Embedded in that advertising campaign were direct lies to and deception of the voters of Tasmania on their way to the ballot box.

Here is a sect which should read the ninth commandment: thou shalt not bear false witness. But it is absolutely on the record—and it is not just in this country but elsewhere—that the sect is involved in direct and premeditated influencing of the electorate to deceive voters on the way to vote in the election. I ask this Senate: if we should not investigate that then where do we leave democracy? With what vulnerability do we leave democracy?

I will read a tract from an ex-member—and many ex-members of this sect have horrible stories to tell about the excommunication from families simply because they no longer believed in what the leaders of the sect were doing. These are good people. They are Christians. They are people who believe in leading a good life but they have been vilified simply because they do not agree with what the leaders of this now politically involved sect is doing. The ex-member says:

The trauma of my actual leaving my home and parents has remained with me to this day—38 years hence. I had to pack up my belongings surreptitiously and get away while my parents were out at an Exclusive Brethren meeting. I saw my mother 3 weeks after I left to pick up some more of my belongings and the sight of the physical change in her appearance due to her heartbreak at losing me is something I don’t even have to close my eyes to feel and see—it is burned into my soul. At that stage I had 3 of my siblings and about a dozen nieces and nephews in the sect. I never saw them again. It had taken the 9 months of planning to achieve my escape, and I was skin and bone. All these years later, I am still thankful I had the courage to do it—