Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Scullion for his interjection. Have a look at what happened in South Australia at the time of the last federal election. Look at the ads placed by the Liberal Party. Side by side with them, day after day, the Exclusive Brethren was mentioned in the regional newspapers. Have a look at it. Look at the fact that Exclusive Brethren school addresses were used to authorise ads—and those schools get federal government funding. They get federal government funding because they supposedly comply with curriculum guidelines in each of the states, but they are not allowed to have computers, for a start; they are not allowed to have fax machines, TVs or anything like that. So I am not entirely sure how they comply with curriculum guidelines around the country.

I return to the other powers that Mr Bruce Hales, the head of the church, wields. He has the right to take over any corporation that contains the clauses already mentioned, with regard to National Office Assist. He has the right to take ownership of Exclusive Brethren meeting rooms in the event of a dispute. That gives him the power to take over a huge amount of real estate. I know that at the last election the address that was given by the person who authorised the Exclusive Brethren leaflet which attacked the Greens, in the election that I was involved in, gave the address as 11 Baden-Powell Court in Sydney. The person concerned did not live there at the time. All of these properties owned by the Exclusive Brethren have been taken from other Exclusive Brethren people over time—repossessed, virtually, from within their congregation—and that property forms the basis of a considerable amount of wealth in the church. They are entitled to wealth, the same as anybody else is. If they work hard and earn a living, they are entitled to the benefits and to the fruits of their labour. What they are not entitled to do is to use exemptions for churches in order to get out of obligations under the tax system. We know that they oppose unions, and that it is one of the reasons why they support the coalition. They are emphatic about opposing unions in the workplace, and they are emphatic about supporting the government’s new Work Choices legislation—because it leads to exploitation, effectively. That is the kind of thing we are dealing with here.

I believe that in a democracy people have a right to transparency, and that is my objection to what is going on: there is no transparency. We are dealing with a sect who defend their activities on the basis that they are individual people—and these individual people suddenly come up with $10,000 or whatever to put an ad in the paper, or wherever it is that they place the ads. Then somebody else will make a gift to them, so that it is not officially from the church. It is never officially from the church, because officially the church never gets involved. But if you go and have a look at Ratby Distribution Ltd, you will soon see the involvement in sending money around the world for political donations.

Whilst the coalition will continue to work with the Exclusive Brethren coming into next year’s federal election, we will see the same vilification of homosexuals, transgender people and intersex people. We will see that around the country because they believe it is a sin and that it must be wiped out, and they will support ‘right-thinking’ people who are prepared to wipe it out. That is a fact. That is where this is coming from. It is the most intolerant, mean-spirited, unChristian perspective that is being brought to bear here. And it is being dressed up as something else.

Australian people need to think very carefully about that. I think they would be horrified to know that ads that say, ‘We are happy, John. John Howard provides,’ are coming from people whose agenda is fundamentally to exhibit intolerance of homosexuals. That is what we are dealing with. As they have said themselves, ‘Homosexuality is a sin; we will support that person if somebody is promoting that right principle.’

This matter is a lot more complex than the cheap and thoroughly offensive remarks of Senator Abetz. I found his reference to yellow stars appalling and demeaning of the Senate. He might want to grandstand in here about what happened with the Nazis, but I am a student of history, and I know, as well as anyone in here who has read history, what happened with the Nazis and their vilification of minorities, academics, homosexuals and Jews. We know about vilification, and that is why we are asking for an investigation, because we would like to have any engagement by third parties in political campaigns to be open and accessible to the Australian people, so that they know who is putting what in their letterbox and what motivation they have. The motivation behind that material is sinister, and it is not honest.

I have never come across a more deceitful explanation of involvement in the political system than I have seen with the Exclusive Brethren. In years to come, as this becomes more and more exposed, people will look back and recognise the naivete that was engaged in when this house failed to investigate what was going on in the Australian community, and the fostering of that intolerance. And that is what it is—intolerance. That is why the Greens will always stand up for tolerance, transparency and openness. I regard it as disappointing that this motion is not seen in that light, because that is what it is about. (Time expired)