MPs launch inquiry into Exclusive Brethren’s alleged election intimidation
Labor MPs have revealed shocking details of stalking and intimidation by Exclusive Brethren members who targeted polling stations while wearing Liberal Party clothing.
The “aggressive” and “intimidating” presence of the Exclusive Brethren in this year’s federal election will be put under a spotlight in a major post-election review.
Thousands of members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church appeared at pre-poll stations across the country during this year’s campaign to hand out Coalition election material.
A wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry into the 2025 election, set up on Wednesday, will look at the purported increase in incidents of “aggressive conduct, deliberate obstruction, and intimidating behaviour towards voters, political participants, and Australian Electoral Commission officials”.
Committee chair and Member for Bennelong Jerome Laxale was one of many Labor candidates across the country whose electorate was targeted by the secretive sect.
He said many voters had told him this election had “crossed a line”.
“I don’t want people to be discouraged from voting, and the behaviour we saw in the campaign might lead people to thinking I don’t want to vote next time.
Member for Blair Shayne Neumann, who is on the committee, also experienced the sect’s concerted efforts in his electorate which he has said included “bullying, and aggressive, intimidating and offensive behaviour at polling booths by the Exclusive Brethren in LNP paraphernalia”.
“Exclusive Brethren members stood in front of Labor volunteers and verbally abused them, physically blocking them from handing out how- to-vote cards, would film Labor and other volunteers on their phones, and repeatedly make petty and vexatious complaints to polling booth returning officers – yet they themselves refused to comply with directions from the AEC at pre-poll,” he described.
“The Exclusive Brethren even harassed and stalked me and my campaign staff during the campaign and on election day, even following me in my car at one point from booth to booth, following my campaign workers at night and doing laps of polling booths heckling and yahooing.
“On top of this, they regularly defaced and destroyed my campaign signs and plastered the electorate with LNP signs, which really just succeeded in annoying voters.”
The inquiry has also been tasked by Special Minister of State Don Farrell to look at possible reforms to address the ongoing threats of foreign and domestic interference in our electoral system.
Members have been asked to look at ideas about changing the composition of parliament as a whole, including the length of the parliamentary term, potential fixed terms, and the number of elected representatives.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday reiterated his support for four-year fixed terms, but declared he had “no intention of any referendums this term”.
Mr Laxale has urged anyone who wishes to share their experience of the election, whether they were a candidate, voter, official or volunteer to make submissions to the inquiry before public hearings begin next month.
