Exclusive Brethren Elders Reportedly Ran Far-Right Stunts Targeting Albanese and Other MPs in 2025 Election

Investigative reporting from Brisbane Times in March 2025 describes a campaign of scripted stunts aimed at political figures during the 2025 federal election. On March 29, 2025, far-right influencer Laurence McIntyre disrupted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s press conference in Brisbane and was quickly removed by security. The report says McIntyre had previously been photographed with neo-Nazis at a white supremacist gathering in Melbourne and had appeared in private neo-Nazi groups on Telegram.

According to the same report, far-right agitators were paid to harass the prime minister, ministers, Greens and teal independent candidates in nearly a dozen scripted stunts during the campaign. Leaked messages, the report says, show that elders from the Exclusive Brethren, a wealthy Christian sect, ran the operation, and that the trail leads to Gareth Hales, a son of sect leader Bruce Hales. Chats reportedly show that the night before Albanese’s press conference, McIntyre was tasked to “tail, photo/video, heckle.” The masthead says it has traced more than a dozen disruptions shared on social media to the operation.

Six anonymous sources told the masthead that the Brethren used contacts in Canberra to track the prime minister’s plane, followed his protective detail and paid agitators in cash. Senior Brethren figure Lester Sharples confirmed that “it was organised by a number of people, of which I was one,” but denied knowing of any money changing hands. Where accounts rest on anonymous sourcing and leaked material, these remain claims reported by the masthead rather than established findings, and the question of who directed the stunts and how they were funded is not settled in the reporting.

A separate report from The Age describes the parliamentary response. Bruce Hales, the Exclusive Brethren’s world leader, is due to give evidence on Friday before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. His son Gareth Hales, described as a potential successor, will give evidence immediately before him. The committee is examining the church’s undisclosed campaigning in support of Peter Dutton at the last election, and whether the church should be declared a “significant third-party” campaigner.

The Brethren’s position, as reported, is that the campaigning was carried out by individual church members and had nothing to do with the church. This account differs from the Brisbane Times reporting that elders ran the operation, and both versions are attributed to their respective sources. Honest accounting of who acted and on whose authority, as reporting of this kind requires, is a matter of speaking the truth carefully (Ephesians 4:15).

Turning Point USA, an American right-wing lobby group once headed by Charlie Kirk, has backed the Exclusive Brethren ahead of the hearing. The group says the summons signals a broader attack on people of faith. Pastor Lucas Miles, who leads Turning Point USA Faith, wrote on X that the Brethren may be the first of many churches to face this, and he called on the Trump government to lobby the Australian government on the matter. The reports do not say whether any government has responded to that request.

Bruce Hales has stated in The Australian that he did not participate in the campaign and did not ask anyone to do so.