ADJOURNMENT

Mr LAXALE (Bennelong) (19:35): It's truly a gift to live in Australia—the environment, the people, the cities and the bush. Australia is the best country on earth, and the world knows it. One of the cornerstones of our values and of our way of life is our very own democracy.

Developed as a hybrid of the best of the Westminster and US systems, our federation has evolved over the decades to be the envy of the world—high participation rates, the secret ballot, the first democracy in the world to allow women to run for parliament and to vote, and last but not least the democracy sausage. Election day in Australia is a carnival that we can all enjoy and be proud of—the scouts running the sausage sizzle, the P&C running the cake stall.

But in many places in 2025 that changed. In many target seats at the 2025 federal election, this wonderful and cherished part of our democracy was smashed. It was smashed in part by the Liberal Party working in cahoots with the Plymouth Brethren.

So close was this partnership that the Liberal Party review of the 2025 election classified members of the Plymouth Brethren as a support group. The Brethren flooded target seats across Australia with their members, who we've heard were coerced, instructed and forced to be there. In Gorton, there were scores of Brethren at booths.

The census lists no members from that area. In Lingiari, Brethren booth workers were flown in from across Australia to work on the most remote polling places in the country. In Blair we've heard estimates of 1,000 Brethren on the booths in just one seat.

Submissions to the inquiry I chair describe the sheer number of people present as intimidatory and reveal that their behaviour was too aggressive, leaving voters less likely to participate. This, I believe, is an attack on our democracy. Now we see reports that senior members of this same organisation paid and recruited Neo-Nazi associates to harass MPs and disrupt the election.

Bundles of cash; strategy and tactics; instructions to tail, film, heckle candidates of all political persuasions—bar the coalition, of course—and a concerted effort to track the movement of the Prime Minister all happened on the senior members of the Brethren's instruction and off the back of their chequebooks. Each parliament since 1984 has conducted an inquiry into the previous election.

To report on their terms of reference, committee members must rely on submissions and evidence given at public hearings. On Friday 21 August, Mr Lloyd Grimshaw appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. There he claimed that the church had no involvement in dirty tricks in the election, yet we read reports of its most senior members planning them.

He claimed that the church did not participate, yet thousands of Brethren members swamped booths right across the country. He claimed that the decision to campaign at the 2025 election was organic and individual, yet we have multiple reports of coercion, instruction and coordination. There's a pattern of evidence here, and it stinks.

From my perspective, the evidence Mr Grimshaw gave us was shallow, inconsistent and at points laughable. Left unaddressed, his evidence has the potential to undermine the work of the committee and the outcome of its report. I need answers.

Later this week, I'll be seeking the support of the committee to invite—and compel, if required—both Bruce and Gareth Hales. They are known to be two of the most senior members of the Plymouth Brethren and are named regularly in reporting. They need to give evidence because the jig is up.

The Hales need to spill the beans, tell Australia what happened in 2025 and explain why they've worked so hard to hide it. The health of our democracy is more important than the outcome of any one election, and Australians deserve to know the truth.