Brethren church hits out at Albanese in election inquiry submission

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has hit out at ‘extraordinary attacks’ made against its members by the Prime Minister and senior Labor MPs.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has hit out at “extraordinary attacks” on its members by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and high-profile Labor MPs, and cast doubt on the impartiality of a parliamentary inquiry into the 2025 Federal Election.

In a submission to the inquiry run by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) – seen by The Daily Telegraph – the Brethren singles out Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale and Parramatta MP Andrew Charlton over their criticisms of Brethren members’ involvement in election campaigning.

“Mr Jerome Laxale MP, said the involvement of members of our church ‘felt like an assault on democracy’. Imagine if he had said that about parishioners from any other church”, the submission reads.

“Mr Andrew Charlton arguably took it one step further and approached volunteers and filmed them while asking ‘are you a member of the Exclusive Brethren”. We ask members of this committee to imagine for a moment if Mr Charlton had asked ‘are you a Jew’ or ‘a Muslim person’, or ‘a Catholic’, or ‘a Hindu’ instead.”

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has hit out at “extraordinary attacks” on its members by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

The Brethren’s submission – which criticises Mr Albanese’s labelling of the church as a “cult” during the election campaign – also raises concerns about the impartiality of the JSCEM inquiry, which Mr Laxale leads as chair.

“Given the commentary from Mr Laxale when he was appointed as committee chair, and his comments before and since … we wish to express our serious concerns that this committee will be able to make judgments as they relate to our church in a fair and impartial manner”, it says,

“At this past election we had groups of Muslim Australians banding together to pursue their political goals including through Muslim Votes Matter. They are entitled to do so. Groups of Jewish Australians have likewise engaged in the political process to pursue policies important to them and support candidates who shared their views. They are likewise legally and morally entitled to do so.”

Members of the Brethren – which has approximately 16,000 Australian worshippers – donated at least $700,000 to conservative lobby group Advance during the election campaign, with many Brethren members volunteering to support Liberal Party candidates at polling booths.

In their submission, the Brethren also identifies dozens of incidents in which Brethren worshippers experienced poor behaviour on the campaign trail, including one incident in which an unnamed MP’s father approached a volunteer “made homophobic comments to imply he was gay, and asked him ‘how’s your bum?’”.

In response to questions put to the Mr Albanese by The Daily Telegraph, a government spokesman said “it’s up to the Liberal Party to explain what the arrangements were and what promises were made to this group to reward their significant investment in the Liberal Party’s campaign”.

Mr Laxale and Mr Charlton were contacted for comment.

Originally published as Brethren church hits out at Albanese in election inquiry submission