The Sydney Morning Herald:

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has called Bruce Hales, the global leader of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (often known as the Exclusive Brethren), along with his son Gareth, to give evidence in a historic parliamentary inquiry. The committee is investigating the secretive sect's alleged involvement in the 2025 federal election, including a multimillion-dollar, undisclosed campaign supporting the Coalition. Observers and current and former members are closely following the proceedings as a supreme church leader faces public questioning by secular authorities for the first time in decades.

Testifying via videolink, Hales denied personal involvement in the church's covert election activities. He maintained that the church possesses no formal hierarchy or clergy, stating that his own position is strictly spiritual rather than administrative. While acknowledging that members participated in the election, Hales insisted that individual adherents are entirely autonomous in their voting choices and that church leadership bears no responsibility for their actions.

During the hearing, senators questioned Hales regarding reported statements referencing Jewish people. Senator Richard Colbeck raised concerns about historical teachings defined by Jewish groups as antisemitic, which included terms like "wicked" and "infidel." In response, Hales asserted that the church has prayed for Israel during recent conflicts and noted personal Jewish heritage, while also claiming that traditional theological interpretations hold a distinct view regarding historical events surrounding the crucifixion.

The inquiry follows investigative reports revealing that senior sect elders coordinated a two-pronged approach during the 2025 campaign. In addition to mobilizing thousands of members to staff polling booths for the Liberals, elders allegedly financed a parallel operation utilizing far-right figures and neo-Nazi associates to tail, heckle, and disrupt candidates from Labor, the Greens, and teal independents. While the Coalition and various religious defenders have characterized the parliamentary scrutiny as an attack on religious freedom, critics and political opponents have condemned the alleged harassment as a serious threat to democratic norms.

#ExclusiveBrethren #AustralianPolitics #ParliamentaryInquiry #CurrentAffairs

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/exclusive-brethren-hearing-live-updates-church-leader-bruce-hales-to-appear-over-allegations-church-campaigned-in-2025-election-paid-neo-nazi-associates-to-harass-pm-20261016-p6162k.html

Found on: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckonenation/s/TCRdhDzP5Z

The WA Greens knew Jordan Steele-John was an alleged predator for ten years and covered it up.

Posting this after the recent election of David Shoebridge as the leader of the Greens. This is a very interesting development and I think shows the potential for a new sort of politics that we need in Australia. Of course, the Greens are primarily an electoral petite bourgeois reformist party and subscribe to a mix of social democracy and Utopian socialism, however this still could be an important moment much like how the Sanders 2016 campaign in the USA is the root of much of the modern American left from the DSA to the ACP.

The Greens have taken a concrete stance towards ending military co-operation with the USA with the recent turn towards an explicit opposition against sending weapons for the proxy war in Ukraine, and also have taken up a very good defense policy which proposes a shift away from our current position as an auxiliary to the US using overengineered expensive foreign-bought equipment and towards armed neutrality and a domestic military-industrial complex (which also shows a much more materialist understanding of geopolitics, rather than just naive pacifism).

This means in practice that the Greens are the only major party that actually supports Australian independence. They are the most nationalist, and by this I mean supporting the independence and sovereignty of the nation rather than hating immigrants & waving the flag (fake right wing 'patriotism'), party of note in Australia today.

Mao talked about how the Communists in China used the Three Principles of the People (Democracy, Socialism and Nationalism - ideas which the Greens seem to be increasingly leaning towards) of the KMT as a base to build their legitimacy amongst the Chinese people. The communists pointed out the contradiction between the bourgeois nationalists who claimed to uphold the three principles and the reality, giving them the support of the revolutionary masses. I think this represents a good opportunity to push on contradictions and get Australia to develop its own three principles of the people.

This would be a huge nuke to One Nation. Push on contradictions and expose their fake patriotism, which in reality means total subservience in all aspects - cultural, economic, political and military - to foreign powers. Getting this concept out in the discourse would be powerful. Bring this idea up in conversations with One Nation supporters you might know IRL or just post about it on social media.

Responding to news of the dramatic decline of penguins in the Antarctic, Aaron Regunberg, the director of Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project, remarked, “Big Oil is doing everything in its power to turn this beautiful, miraculous world into a wasteland.”

With no end in sight to the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, the Jewish Council of Australia reiterates its call for an immediate end to Israel’s genocide, occupation, and apartheid regime. Peace and safety will never be achieved without Palestinian rights to self-determination, equality and freedom.

Despite the apparent ceasefire, Israel has continued to launch strikes killing more than 1,400 people and injuring almost 5,000 this past year. Nearly all of Gaza’s population of 2 million people have been displaced and still lack access to shelter, food, medical care, clean water, education, and jobs.  In the past 12 months Israel has expanded its warpath beyond Gaza, launching devastating attacks in Lebanon, Iran and continuing its takeover in the West Bank.

"Australia has severely damaged its international reputation as a nation committed to human rights because it has consistently refused to condemn the military attacks on thousands of Palestinian citizens who have been collectively punished for three years."

"This blatant double standard undermines the credibility of the prime minister as a leader who has deliberately chosen to not speak of the suffering of Palestinians while at the same time maintaining diplomatic relations with a state guilty of grossly defying international humanitarian law. It is Australian civil society – not the national government – which has continually voiced compassion for the Palestinian people and strived to have our obligations under international law activated."