The Exclusive Brethren’s “Man of God”, Bruce Hales, has won the full-throated support of high-profile American right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA as he prepares for a parliamentary-committee grilling about his church’s pro-Coalition campaign at the last election.
The American lobby group, once headed by slain activist Charlie Kirk, claims summoning Hales to give evidence before a hearing of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on Friday signals a broader attack on people of faith.
“The Brethren may be the first to face this, but I do not believe they will be the last,” wrote Pastor Lucas Miles, who leads Turning Point USA Faith, in a recent post on social media platform X. “If this approach succeeds against one church, it becomes a precedent of intimidation for all churches.”
Miles called on the Trump government to lobby the Australian government on the matter.
Hales and his son, Gareth, will give evidence on Friday after a request from the Electoral Matters Committee, which is investigating the church’s undisclosed pro-Peter Dutton campaign at the last election.
The committee is probing whether the church should be declared a “significant third-party” campaigner under electoral law, given the huge size of its secretive financial and campaign contributions.
The Brethren claims the campaigning was carried out by motivated individual church members, who co-ordinated the action themselves. It had, they say, nothing to do with the church.
Hales’ son and potential successor, Gareth, will give evidence immediately before his father. He was among the senior Brethren elders in chats with far-right figures, co-ordinating a series of stunts against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Greens and teal candidates.
Gareth’s company, Sante Global, organised key meetings that included far-right figures and neo-Nazi associates and is identified in the paper trail of payments to them.
It’s the first time since the early 1990s – before he was the world leader of the wealthy separatist church – that Bruce Hales has been called to account by a “worldly” authority.
In a statement run in The Australian this week, Bruce Hales claimed: “I did not participate in the [election] campaign, nor did I ask anyone to do so.
“There has been considerable misinformation spread by the press, but I am completely confident that truth will prevail and God’s rights in upholding government will be upheld until we are no longer here on Earth and in this world.”
The final reference is to the “Rapture” – a key Brethren teaching which predicts Hales’ followers, “the saints”, will be secretly swept up to heaven before others by the second coming of Jesus Christ. Hales has said this moment is “overdue”.
Hales also preaches a radical “doctrine of separation”, under which his members cannot eat or drink with people outside the church. Women cannot preach and cannot take a leadership position over a man, and homosexuality cannot be practised.
The Brethren must cultivate “a hatred, an utter hatred of the world”, Hales has preached. “You must hate the world, every feature of the world, at every point you hate it,” he told his flock in 2006.
Referring to the decision to call Hales to give evidence, Pastor Miles, who is also president of US Christian conglomerate The Nfluence Network, Inc., wrote: “We are going to need the full force and support of all those who value the freedom of the faithful to engage this! Ignore it, and don’t be surprised when this comes to a city near you!”
Miles called on the Trump government to “take notice”, and encouraged the US state department to “raise these concerns directly with Australian counterparts”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been approached to ask if they have received any communications.
Hales has also received the backing of the Coalition, which has accused the Electoral Matters Committee of a witch hunt, persecuting a religious minority, being un-Australian and trying to bring about a “Communist utopia”.
Australian Christian lobby group Freedom for Faith – which also counts hard-right Jewish organisation the Australian Jewish Association in its coalition – has also supported Hales despite a record of antisemitic statements reported by this masthead.
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Michael Bachelard is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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