Liberal senator demands answers on party's secret contact with Brethren members
A Liberal senator says the party asked him to meet Brethren members. They did not tell him who the members were.
During the 2025 federal election, a senior Liberal official asked the senator to meet two men described as small business people, but they were actually Plymouth Brethren Christian Church members. The senator was not told this detail and only recognised them later.
These Brethren members wanted campaign financial information and login access to Feedback, the party's voter database with electoral-roll data. The senator refused.
He raised concerns with party officials, who told him their involvement would turn off. Later he saw Brethren members at pre-poll booths in growing numbers, often wearing similar Liberal T-shirts, coordinated by people outside local campaign teams.
Recent reports said some Brethren members paid far-right activists who tracked and heckled candidates. The church denies this.
The senator raised the lack of transparency in the party room, saying the public needs to know who participates in campaigns and under what rules this happens.
- 2025 federal election
- Election year
- Three in Western Australia
- Campaigns chaired
Why it mattersVoters need to know who is helping political campaigns and what access these people have to voter data and campaign systems.
AustraliaThis raises questions about transparency in Australian federal election campaigns and whether organised groups' involvement in campaigns should be publicly disclosed.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 3 h ago
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