Exclusive Brethren made nearly a million calls for the Liberal Party
The federal Liberal Party handed over sensitive voter information to the Exclusive Brethren as part of a mammoth phone campaign in which members of the secretive Christian religious sect made nearly a million calls on behalf of the Coalition in the run-up to the federal election.
Multiple sources in the NSW Liberal Party confirmed the keys to the communication software Feedback – which logs every electorate office's engagement with constituents, resulting in a cache of sensitive voter information including contact details – were handed to members of the Brethren.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential party matters, Liberal sources said one of Peter Dutton's senior advisers was the 'point person' for co-ordinating the Brethren's involvement within the party's campaign.
Discouraged from voting as part of their religious beliefs, hundreds of Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) members turned out at dozens of pre-poll booths campaigning for the Coalition. This included Gareth Hales, the wealthy son of the church's founder Bruce, who was photographed at Eastwood pre-poll wearing the campaign shirt of Liberal Bennelong candidate Scott Yung two days before the election.
The decision to provide confidential third-party information to the Brethren caused anxiety within senior levels of the Liberal Party. Concerns were initially raised by the federal secretariat late last year, one NSW Liberal source said.
Once the number of calls being made by PBCC members became apparent to staff in NSW Liberal headquarters during the final weeks of the election campaign, the issue was taken up with the federal secretariat.
The number of voter calls made by the Brethren in a call centre was about 700,000 in mid-January and estimated to be nearly a million across Australia by election day, according to one source.
'This goes really deep. It is much worse than anyone thinks it is,' a Liberal HQ source said.
The Feedback software is owned by the federal Liberal secretariat through a company called Parakeelia. Using a range of data, including electoral roll information, the software creates profiles of constituents for parliamentarians, generating tailored communications for MPs and the party.
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