Brethren head denies knowing church members were volunteering for Liberal party during 2025 election

The most senior member of the Exclusive Brethren has denied any knowledge of or involvement in thousands of members from his church volunteering for the Liberal party at the 2025 election.

The Plymouth Brethren christian church has rejected claims it coordinated volunteers and a campaign for the Coalition, and that it secretly paid far-right figures to stage stunts against the prime minister and other Labor MPs.

The fiery parliamentary committee hearing on Friday was marred by clashes, with members of the committee accusing one another of “religious persecution” and “running a protection racket” for the church.

Bruce Hales, the Brethren’s most senior member, said he had no involvement or knowledge of church members volunteering for the Coalition.

“I want to be clear and unequivocal. I had no involvement whatsoever in relation to any members who volunteered or took part in any aspect of the 2025 federal election,” he told the inquiry.

“I did not plan such activities. I did not coordinate such activities. I did not direct such activities. I did not fund such activities.”

Hales denied that his church was a cult, a term used by the prime minister, while his son, Gareth Hales, who also appeared before the committee, said it was “a bit rough” being labelled as such.

Gareth Hales gave evidence on Friday he had met Morgan C Jonas and Chris de Bruyne separately in a business capacity, and briefly discussed the “general direction the government was headed”. 

The independent MP Andrew Gee referred to the two as far-right activists, although Gareth Hales denied knowing their political affiliations at the time.

Nine newspapers have reported Jonas and de Bruyne were involved in a campaign that targeted Labor and other left-leaning politicians during the election. Gareth Hales denied reports his company Sante Global paid the two men to disrupt other campaigns.

There was turmoil in the committee as Coalition members likened questioning by Labor and crossbench MPs to a “Spanish Inquisition”.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Liberal MP Ben Small repeatedly interrupted questions, calling them “disgraceful” and “disrespectful”. McKenzie said the line of questioning looked “a lot like religious persecution”, while Small was accused of trying to answer questions for the church.

Gee, who was previously a Nationals MP, said the two were running an “old Liberal party protection racket”, a comment he was forced to withdraw.

On 20 April 2025, just under two weeks before the federal election, Bruce Hales gave a sermon where he told members to be “fervent in prayer for good government”, and that the country needed to be happy again and smiling again.