FOUR CORNERS
Investigative TV journalism at its best.
Date: 15/10/2007
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: They are one of Australia's most secretive religious
sects. They worship in private, and dislike close media attention.
...They refuse to vote on conscientious grounds, but spend millions of
dollars to influence elections around the world.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: The Exclusive Brethren are a real
factor in changing votes and therefore potentially changing members of
Parliament and potentially even changing governments.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: In 1993 John Hewson fought and lost the "unlosable
election". Mark Humber was working in his father's business at the time.
One day, he recalls, they received a fax from Sydney with a draft for an
ad to be placed in a local newspaper.
MARK HUMBER, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: The advertisement was
basically supporting Hewson's GST but most people didn't realise that
those big advertisements that were put in there at the last minute were
actually created and published by the Exclusive Brethren supporting the
Liberal Party.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Mark Humber): So was this advertisement being sent
all over the country?
MARK HUMBER, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: It was.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Mark Humber): So there was a degree of
coordination here?
MARK HUMBER, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: Oh definitely, more than
a degree. It was an order, it was a direct order that came from Sydney,
and everybody assumes that that came from the Elect Vessel or the Man of
God or the leader of the Exclusive Brethren who was John Hales.
.....
Bob Hales too remembers the Hewson GST campaign, and the role played in
it by Brethren elder, Warwick John.
BOB HALES, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: Warwick John arrived about
three or four weeks before the election and basically set up his
campaign headquarters there at Parramatta and they ran full page ads in
newspapers around the country basically, but it was all paid for by
individual Brethren either through their businesses or they'd use their
middle name as their last name to sort of hide their identities a bit.
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: This notion that the Brethren church doesn't campaign
- only individual Brethren - would become a refrain repeated in
subsequent political campaigns.
But in 1993, the leadership lost its nerve.
BOB HALES, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: It was brought up in one
of our church meetings that it was, we'd done the wrong thing by
supporting a political party because the Brethren don't vote, they
believe that, you know, government is of God, they've got these ... But
they, we all had to confess and say that we were sorry for contributing
to the campaign.
...
Under Bruce Hales, the Brethren have campaigned aggressively for the
Howard government and lobbied government ministers for special treatment.
For a sect which numbers just 13,000 in Australia and whose members
don't vote, the Brethren's level of access to government has been
remarkable.
PETER COSTELLO, TREASURER (archive footage, 22 August 2007): Over the
years I've had many meetings with the Exclusive Brethren, just as I have
with people from other churches. This is no crime. In fact, the crime
would be if a Member of Parliament refused to meet somebody on the basis
of their religious convictions.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: In recent years Brethren leaders have met
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, the then Justice Minister Chris
Ellison, Health Minister Tony Abbott, Treasurer Peter Costello and Prime
Minister John Howard.
Former Minister Danna Vale supported the accreditation of political
campaigner Warwick John as a Parliamentary lobbyist.
In 2004, the Brethren won a temporary exemption from testing their
children for computer literacy, from then Education Minister Brendan Nelson.
In New South Wales and South Australia, the Brethren have won exemptions
from union inspections in their workplaces, and this is mirrored in
recent federal legislation.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: Notably, they have been able to
influence John Howard's WorkChoices legislation with a special exemption
for Exclusive Brethren workplaces from union presences, and without the
authority of their employees because they're given no say, the Exclusive
Brethren is able to ban unions from coming into any of their work places.
BOB HALES, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: The Brethren see John
Howard basically as their hero.
....
Six days after the Brethren's leaders set their political goal of
retaining the Howard government, church member Mark William Mackenzie,
set up a ten dollar company called Willmac Enterprises.
Mark Mackenzie was the sole director and this is the address he
registered with ASIC - 11 Baden Powell Place, North Rocks.
Using this rundown property in north-west Sydney as its headquarters,
Willmac Enterprises spent more than $370,000 during the Federal
Election, promoting the Brethren's agenda.
RAY OSBORN, NORTH ROCKS RESIDENT: I've been coming past here once a week
for the last five years, consistently, and I've never seen anybody come
or go from the premises. It looks uninhabited and as far as I know it is
uninhabited.
(Vision of pamphlet entitled "The GREEN Delusion")
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Mark Mackenzie authorised this pamphlet in Tasmania,
which described the policies of the Greens as "socially destructive" and
"downright dangerous". To the casual observer, there was nothing to link
this pamphlet and scores of campaign ads which appeared around the
country to the Exclusive Brethren.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: This is a democracy. I don't mind them
being involved in election campaigning. What we object to and many other
commentators object to is the secrecy with which they do it.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Tonight we can reveal for the first time that Willmac
was solely a vehicle for receiving campaign funds and spending them –
and these two men took the lead.
While different Brethren around the country booked and authorised the
ads, Mark Mackenzie signed cheques to pay for them. When Willmac needed
funds, the lobbyist Warwick John provided them.
The political campaign was highly organised. In the final three days
before the October 2004 election, Brethren ads appeared around the
country, from Perth in the west to Brisbane in the east, and in John
Howard's electorate of Bennelong.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: In Bennelong, Bruce Hales' brother Stephen Hales
challenged the Prime Minister's high-profile opponent, intelligence
whistleblower Andrew Wilkie who was standing for the Greens.
...
(Graphic showing advertisement)
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Stephen Hales authorised this ad - paid for by
Willmac - supporting the Prime Minister, and gave his own address as
this Brethren school in Bennelong.
PHIL MCNAUGHTON, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN, AUSTRALIA: Stephen is a trustee of
the MET school and that was where he was contactable during the day.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: The school is a Brethren charity, attracting hundreds
of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funding, and tax concessions.
Charities are not allowed to engage in party political campaigns and can
lose their tax-exempt status if they do.
BRONTE TRAINOR: And it had a full page advertisement.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Bronte Trainor): Keep Australia in safe hands.
BRONTE TRAINOR: Keep Australia in safe hands, yes, put in by a school.
Well first of all it looks like a Liberal Party ad but when I saw it I
thought, where's the Liberal Party logo?
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Over in South Australia, a succession of similar
newspaper ads appeared which were also paid for by Willmac Enterprises.
They piqued the curiosity of Peter and Bronte Trainor, devout Christians
with a keen interest in politics. They decided to investigate.
PETER TRAINOR : When we interpret a political message, part of
interpreting that message is knowing who is presenting that message to
us and that's where the misleading element comes in.
(Graphic of advertisement headed: "WHY THE GRASS WON'T BE GREENER ON THE
OTHER SIDE.")
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: When he saw this ad attacking the Greens' policies,
Peter Trainor went looking for Ken Grace, a Brethren man who had
authorised the ad but who proved hard to pin down.
PETER TRAINOR (driving): Just along here you'll see the address 40
Adelaide Terrace Ascot Park which was the address sited on the
advertisement authorised by AK Grace.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Peter Trainor): Yes.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Under the electoral rules, anyone who authorises an
ad has to give an address where they can be contacted during the day.
This didn't appear to have happened.
PETER TRAINOR : He neither lives here, nor owns the property.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Peter Trainor): Nor works there.
PETER TRAINOR : Nor works here.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Eleven of the Brethren ads in South Australia were
published by the local Messenger group of newspapers.
The ads were booked by Warwick Joyce, the Brethren church's leader in
South Australia. Most were authorised by a Brethren school principal in
another state - Victoria. And the funds came from Mark Mackenzie's
business, Willmac Enterprises, here in New South Wales.
MEGAN LLOYD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, MESSENGER NEWSPAPERS: When you have one
person, or one group booking ads, a second person in another State
authorising the ads and what we have since now discovered just recently,
a third payment being made in another State, that doesn't sound like it
was just, it just happened that it was Exclusive Brethren members acting
on their own accord or just doing their own thing.
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: The Brethren insist that they are tax-paying,
law-abiding citizens. But the way they move money around the world and
what they use that money for, is now calling this claim into question.
Last year Ron Fawkes, a one-time leader of the Exclusive Brethren in
Australia, revealed on "Four Corners" how he had been asked to carry
large amounts of cash between England and America during the late 1970s
and early 1980s, by a former world leader, Jim Symington.
RON FAWKES, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN ("Four Corners", 25
September 2006): The vast amounts of money handed over are referred to
as gifts to, particularly to the leading, leading men. Now that money
amounts in the course of the year to millions, all going untaxed.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: Tonight we can reveal that this practice of carrying
envelopes of cash around the world has continued well into the current
Hales era.
....
DON MONDAY, FORMER MEMBER, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN: Well the Brethren would
normally on a monthly basis give gifts to Mr Hales as well as other
people in responsible positions and that money would be carried by what
we jokingly would've called the Brethren Express. It would all have been
transferred in envelopes by people who were travelling.
....
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Phil McNaughton): And it amounts to millions of
dollars every year.
PHIL MCNAUGHTON, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN, AUSTRALIA: Not at all.
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT (to Phil McNaughton): Well, how much does it amount to?
PHIL MCNAUGHTON, EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN, AUSTRALIA: I don't know, Quentin.
There is no centralised church records. Each church would be responsible
for their own record keeping.
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: The question which remains unanswered is how much of
the cash which is spirited between countries by individual Brethren is
used to fund political campaigns.
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: The source of Willmac's funds is now being
investigated by the Australian Federal Police, after inquiries into the
Brethren's electioneering were concluded by the Australian Electoral
Commission.
......
as this exchange in a Senate Estimates Committee hearing revealed, where
that funding came from remains an issue.
(Excerpt from Senate Estimates Committee, 13 February 2007):
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: You said in your letter to me that
your office had found no evidence that Willmac Enterprises received
gifts or donations to be used in this electoral expenditure.
IAN CAMPBELL, ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER: Senator, we wrote that letter
because we wanted to answer your very specific question. And we wrote
that letter and gave you the information we had at the time. But I am
saying to you that we are continuing, this almost sounds I know like a
TV show, we are continuing various lines of inquiry.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: I am asking you, does that sentence
still stand true?
IAN CAMPBELL, ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER: I'd rather say, Senator, let time
and our inquiry proceed before I answer anything more.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: Well I want an answer to that question
Mr Campbell.
IAN CAMPBELL, ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER: Well, Senator, we are
investigating a number of issues to do with this matter, with the
broader matter, and one of them is looking at issues of where funding
came from.
(End of excerpt)
Tonight we reveal where that funding came from. Over a three month
period from late September to late December 2004, $320,000 in cash was
deposited into Willmac's bank account by Warwick John, the Brethren
elder and Parliamentary lobbyist.
"Four Corners" has seen evidence of six major cash deposits by Mr John,
the biggest for $120,000.
Warwick John was not employed by Willmac, nor was he a director.
These donations were not declared to the Australian Electoral Commission
by Willmac's director, Mark Mackenzie.
They are now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
Warwick John declined to be interviewed by "Four Corners"
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: In September 2006 Mark Mackenzie closed down Willmac
Enterprises. On August the 8th this year, two and a half months after
the Australian Electoral Commission called in the Federal Police,
Warwick John, Mark Mackenzie, Stephen Hales and Bruce Hales met the
Prime Minister in his office in Canberra.
...
QUENTIN MCDERMOTT: The Prime Minister was invited to take part in this
program, but declined. He has not elaborated on the details of his
discussion with the Brethren delegation. Despite the ongoing police
investigation into Willmac Enterprises, Mr Howard hasn't retreated from
his public support for the Exclusive Brethren.
Transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2007/s2060198.htm
Video
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20071015/brethren/default.htm
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