Call for inquiry into religious group

Broadcast: 10/11/2006

Reporter: Simon Royal

Now to a little known religious group that's under investigation by the Australian Electoral Commission. The Exclusive Brethren is accused of running secretive ads supporting the Liberal Party during the last federal election. The group denies it's done anything wrong but there's now a call for a parliamentary inquiry into what some people say is a dangerous cult.


SIMON ROYAL: This unobtrusive cream brick hall in Unley is the main meeting place for the Exclusive Brethren in Adelaide. They are, as their name implies, a community which shuns much contact with the outside world.

TOM GRACE, FORMER EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN MEMBER: The Exclusive Brethren are a group of fundamentalist Christians. They have rules that cover virtually every aspect of your life. They limit choice by those rules. They require children, for example, to attend their own schools. They do not allow children to have tertiary education. They do not allow members to eat with people who are not members. They do not allow members to look at television, to look at radio, to use a computer, to use a fax machine, to use a mobile phone, to have any contact with the outside world.

SIMON ROYAL: For his first 17 years Tom Grace was a member of the Exclusive Brethren. His whole extended family were born and bred in the church. But in 1970 Tom Grace's parents abruptly left the Exclusive Brethren. He pursued the tertiary education he says would have been denied him had they stayed. Tom Grace is now an engineering and construction lawyer and this is the first time he has spoken publicly about life in the Exclusive Brethren.

TOM GRACE: I still get emotional thinking about it even so many years later because it was a hugely traumatic event.

SIMON ROYAL: Tom Grace's parents quit the Brethren when the former world leader was allegedly caught sleeping with another man's wife and was accused of being a drunk. The Exclusive Brethren say the claims are a lie. Tom Grace's older siblings remain in the church and were forbidden from talking with their brother. Tom Grace never saw his sister again and had just a few conversations with his older brother, the last one of which was heart-rending.

TOM GRACE: I heard a rumour that a little boy had been killed down at Mount Gambier and I found out that it was one of his children - one of his grandchildren who had been killed in an industrial accident. And I felt sorry for him and I rang him up and I said I wanted to, you know, express my sympathy about what had happened because it was a tragic set of circumstances. And we spoke for a few minutes and he didn't say anything untoward. And then two weeks later I got a phone call from his son saying that he'd died and he'd been buried and the funeral had been held a few days earlier and he died of asbestosis, and we spoke at some length about him. And I found that very difficult to deal with, the fact, first of all, that he hadn't - he obviously knew that he was close to death when I spoke to him and he hadn't felt free to share that and for me to offer him some support through that process and, yeah, that was difficult.

SIMON ROYAL: Stateline asked a senior Adelaide Exclusive Brethren member, Kevin Seeley, for an interview. This was declined but Mr Seeley sent written answers to a series of questions. Mr Seeley says the Exclusive Brethren do not cause family breakdown, sin does. He says fewer than a dozen people have gone public criticising the Brethren, and in Adelaide there's not been one case of family breakdown amongst the Brethren in ten years. He points to a Monash University study based on data from the church: "This family oriented group has an outstandingly low rate of divorced and separated persons. The percentage of Exclusive Brethren who are divorced or separated is miniscule compared with other groups and the national average."

SIMON ROYAL: But debate about what happens within the Brethren is just the start. Now there's debate about what they're doing in the outside community. Tom Grace says amongst the Exclusive Brethren's litany of rules is a strict prohibition on voting. Despite that, Tom Grace and many others say the Exclusive Brethren are involving themselves in politics: for a start, taking out ads in the last federal election.

PETER TRAINOR: Yeah, this is the one, the anti Green ad placed by -

SIMON ROYAL: Some of the clearest examples of that alleged involvement were uncovered by Adelaide Hills residents, Peter and Bronte Trainor.

BRONTE TRAINOR: I was curious as to who these people were.

SIMON ROYAL: During the last federal election the Trainors noticed a series of ads in the Messenger and The Advertiser. The ads either attacked the Greens or advocated the re-election of the Howard Government. The Trainors did some detective work to find out whether any group was behind the ads.

PETER TRAINOR: With some difficulty we did, yes. There were three groups of ads: two of them were placed by people from the Brethren community here in South Australia who were associated with, as we understand it, the Melrose Park school and, with some difficulty, we managed to make contact with those people; and the other group of ads placed in suburban Messenger publications were placed by the principal of a Brethren school in Melbourne.

SIMON ROYAL: The man named in this ad, Bruce Hornsey, confirmed to Stateline that he placed it. Mr Hornsey told us the acronym SAET is in fact the Melrose Park school which he says is run by the Exclusive Brethren. The school is on Daws Road, not Davis Road as in the ad. The Exclusive Brethren told the ABC that was a typographical mistake.

During the last federal election, Labor ran a controversial policy to cut state funding to some independent schools. While the ad may well conform to the Electoral Act, critics argue neither the schools nor the church's interest is apparent.

MARK PARNELL, GREENS MLC: If it is the Exclusive Brethren church that is behind these advertisements, they need to say so. It's really all about accountability. There shouldn't be laws prohibiting religious bodies engaging in politics, of course they should have the right to do that, but not behind this veil of secrecy.

SIMON ROYAL: Do you consider an ad on behalf of one political party a donation in kind?

TOM GRACE: Well, what is the difference.

SIMON ROYAL: Kevin Seeley says the Exclusive Brethren church did not authorise the ad but he acknowledges the connection with the school. He says "Why should advertisements placed by persons concerned at the prospect of a Mark Latham/Greens government, which many Australians now agree would have been a moral and economic disaster, be required to declare their religious persuasion? Aren't we in Australia? How could individuals show Exclusive Brethren church authorisation when they did not have it."

SIMON ROYAL: The letter goes on: "The church has never and will not fund or place ads. Individuals placed ads on their own responsibility".

TOM GRACE: I can say with clear knowledge of how the Brethren operate that no individual within that organisation would be permitted to be making those types of donations to an organisation outside of the Brethren without some sort of encouragement or without the approval of the Brethren hierarchy.

SIMON ROYAL: The Australian Electoral Commission is examining whether the Exclusive Brethren had a disclosure obligation and whether they might be considered a third party donor, in this case to the Liberal Party. But the AEC is not the only one scrutinising the activities of the Exclusive Brethren.


REPORTER: Is that against the law what they're doing up there?

BOB BROWN: Well, they haven't been arrested.

MARK LATHAM: It's against gravity.


SIMON ROYAL: Earlier this year Greens Senator, Bob Brown, failed to have a senate inquiry established into the Exclusive Brethren. Now local Greens MP Mark Parnell, is asking questions in State Parliament. He wants to know how the church managed to secure an exemption clause in the state Labor Government's Fair Work Bill. It means union officials do not have the right to enter a business owned by the Exclusive Brethren.

MARK PARNELL, GREENS MLC: I've asked the Premier what is arrangement is, what his relationship is with the Exclusive Brethren. You know, has he met with them, has he promised them anything, are there political donations? These are really important questions that go to the accountability of our political leaders.

SIMON ROYAL: A statement from Mike Rann's office says the Premier has never met with the Exclusive Brethren; neither has Industrial Relations Minister, Michael Wright. The Premier is unaware of any donations and no commitments have been made. And Michael Wright's office says the Exclusive Brethren were excluded from the Act at their request and that's consistent with other states.

For their part, the Exclusive Brethren say the Greens are using parliamentary privilege for their own ends. Mark Parnell is not ruling out setting up a state inquiry into the Exclusive Brethren, but it would examine much more than just politics. Stories such as Tom Grace's have convinced him there's a need for a broad inquiry; for example, examining what is taught in Brethren schools and how the church handles dissidents.

MARK PARNELL: I think that's got to be of serious concern. We took those sort of things very seriously when it comes to other churches and how they've handled their people: it should be no different with the Exclusive Brethren.

SIMON ROYAL: The Exclusive Brethren dismiss the criticisms made by formers members. They say many of them haven't been to a meeting for more than 30 years and cannot be considered credible. For his part Tom Grace supports an inquiry into the Exclusive Brethren. He says their religious freedom must be absolutely preserved but the memory of his own childhood still haunts him and he doesn't think others should go through that.

TOM GRACE: I feel very deeply sorry for children who are born into a repressive regime where they're not given choice. There is a great amount of hardship involved in this. And if people choose to do those things then that's fine, but to not allow a whole generation of children the choice to step outside of that group I think is a bad thing and that's the reason that I'm speaking.

IAN HENSCHKE: And the Electoral Commission says its report will be finished by Christmas.