By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
The devil works hard, but the crusading parishioners at the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church work harder when it comes to trying to get Liberals elected.
The secretive fundamentalist church, whose patriarch and “Man of God” Bruce Hales preaches a “hatred” of outsiders, condemns homosexuality and treats women as second-class citizens, sent out an army of volunteers to campaign for the Liberal Party at marginal seats across the country including Bennelong, Kooyong, Gorton, Hawke, Gilmore and Calare – all despite its members objecting to voting on religious grounds.
Gareth Hales (centre, in blue T-shirt), multimillionaire son of Plymouth Brethren Christian Church leader Bruce Hales at the Bennelong polling booth on April 30.
Anyway, with the dust settled and the Liberals vanquished despite all that electioneering, the Brethren flock can go back to what they do best — buying up multimillion-dollar tracts of land in the quiet, leafy corners of Sydney’s north-west.
Relatives of Hales, dubbed the “royal family” by some observers, have been particularly drawn to the Epping-Eastwood area.
Among them is Justin Hales, Bruce’s 25-year-old grandson, whose father, Gareth, was one of the senior Brethren figures spotted leafletting. He recently spent about $8 million buying not one but two adjacent blocks in North Epping on a quiet cul-de-sac. The first was bought in 2023 for $2.9 million, and its four-bedroom neighbour was picked up for a suburb record $5.13 million last year.
Now Hales is seeking council approval to consolidate the two houses into a single 11-bedroom mega-mansion at a cool cost of $9 million. When first exhibited, the development application shattered the council’s maximum permitted floor size and attracted 30 objections from neighbours. It is being exhibited again with a slight reduction in size at the rear. Hornsby Shire Council is considering the application.
Asked about the latest Hales property plans, a Brethren spokesperson told CBD: “Our church has no comment to make on the home renovations of any of our parishioners, past or present, young or old, Hales or not Hales.
“If you want information about our church, let us know. If you want information about property renovations, watch The Block.”
Bruce Hales (front left), the global leader or the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, preaches in the US.Credit: Matthew Absalom-Wong
Abbott’s X-ray specs
Once again, Melbourne has managed to get the better of former prime minister Tony Abbott.
Regular readers will recall the great man’s tussle with a tram on Collins Street in February, when a 12a tram sounded the alarm after Abbott stood too close for too long to the Collins Street tracks after alighting near Spring Street.
I mean, we all remember former UK prime minister and right-wing hero Margaret Thatcher explaining that conservatives are “not for turning”. But man, those trams weigh 21 tonnes. Abbott eventually moved.
Now word reaches us of an incident last Tuesday at the security screening in the Virgin Australia terminal of Melbourne Airport, where PM28 came off worse in a lunchtime encounter with a security scanner.
As CBD’s man on the spot informed us: “He put his glasses in the tray, they went through the scanner and didn’t come out the other side.”
Tony Abbott, in February, with spectacles in place.Credit: AP
“It was a very annoyed Tony by the end of it. He was polite and pleasant but they were looking everywhere.”
It was apparent to witnesses that the admirably apolitical security staff had absolutely no idea who the man in their midst was.
When we caught up with Abbott, he told us there was no happy airport reunion for a man and his spectacles.
“Alas no,” the former PM told CBD when we inquired if the eyewear was recovered.
“The staff looked for them but reckoned they couldn’t see anything. C’est la vie.”
Reality bites
Tina Brown, the Climate 200-backed teal independent who ran in the federal seat of Berowra, talked a big game about dislodging the Liberals.
Brown ended up taking just 12 per cent of the primary vote, despite much optimism from her camp. How much optimism? Brown’s election night party at Pennant Hills Bowling Club catered for 150 people, but only about 30 showed up. A full-on media wall was set up especially for the jubilant victorious live-cross into the ABC’s studios that never came. Instead, with a bit of help from Brown’s preferences, Labor ended up turning Liberal MP Julian Leeser’s once-safe seat into a tight marginal.
Last week, reality bit. Brown was selling her campaign A-frames at $25 a pop on Facebook marketplace. Not even a helping hand from the seat’s former long-serving member and Liberal Party grandee Phil Ruddock – who filmed a video with Brown in his backyard after his wife defected to the teal camp – helped Brown’s campaign in the end.
Do we sense just a hint of hubris infecting the teal movement? In neighbouring Bradfield, independent candidate Nicolette Boele styled herself as the seat’s “shadow member” for years before narrowly losing to Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian.
Elsewhere in teal land, the member for Goldstein in Melbourne, Zoe Daniel, is still not conceding in her rematch against ex-Liberal MP and comeback kid Tim Wilson “out of respect for the democratic process”. This is despite joyously claiming victory on election night before her position in the count went south. Not a peep about the count from the former ABC correspondent on her socials since Friday – not even on Facebook marketplace.
Re-making News
All change at News Corp. Seemingly moments after longstanding legal consigliere Ian Philip announced his retirement as chief general counsel after 28 years, comes even bigger news: longstanding public and government affairs consigliere Campbell Reid is relinquishing his role as group executive, corporate affairs, policy and government relations.
But, as News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller told staff in a 750-word memo heaping praise on the executive, “even a title that long doesn’t capture the many diverse roles he plays across our company that are a reflection of his unique skills and experience”.
Quite. Reid, a former editor of The Australian and The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, started his career as an 18-year-old cadet at The Waikato Times in New Zealand in 1976.
He became a generalissimo in News Corp’s successful quest with the rest of the industry to force tech giants to pay for news content in the Media Bargaining Code.
But he was in his element as a tabloid newspaper editor, once splashing a massive headline in The Daily Telegraph that went “HAVE WE GONE COMPLETELY MAD?” when highlighting minuscule payouts to victims of crime compared with other government largesse.
Reid was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to journalism in 2019 and remains in his role until October. He will stay at News on a part-time basis as an adviser, will be head of the Digital News Academy and represent the company as a director of the American Australian Association and chairman of the Mediality company.
The new group executive corporate affairs for News Corp Australia will be Sally Fielke, who joins from Coles, where she was group corporate and Indigenous affairs officer. Quite the change.
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