Exclusive Brethren called the web a ‘pipeline of filth’. Now they have a podcast

Move over, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee – there’s a new podcast in town. The group formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren has finally succumbed to the manly urge of grabbing a microphone and talking for long periods of time.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s podcast series was launched on the “pipeline of filth” – what the church once called the internet – this week, with the noble goal of fighting back at the “conspiracy theory” and “religious discrimination” it claims has tainted media coverage of its flock.

Episode 1 features church spinner Lloyd Grimshaw interviewing Gareth, Dean, Charles and Greg Hales – the four sons of Brethren’s multimillionaire leader Bruce Hales, known within the church as BDH, the Lord’s Servant, the Elect Vessel or CEO.

The first episode goes into the lives and businesses of the brothers – the church’s so-called “royal family” – and their devotion to their “visionary” and “entrepreneurial” father.

It also delves into negative media coverage engulfing the church, its controversial involvement in the past federal election, and the brothers’ desire for PM Anthony Albanese to get a phone call with US President Donald Trump.

You might recall Albanese has called the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church a “cult”. No mention of the C-word on the pod, though.

This masthead has reported the church’s’ financial and on-the-ground support for the Liberal Party in the May election was so overwhelming that some Liberal operatives feared it could exert undue influence over an incoming Peter Dutton-led government.

But the brothers say there was no arrangement with the Liberal Party or any party during the election. They also insist the church doesn’t campaign or co-ordinate volunteer political efforts at all.

But Gareth does argue Australia was in a bad place.

“We honestly felt Australia deserved a better, stronger, braver leader that can actually work in with the US … the UK … NATO, France, Germany, Italy, like-minded, smart countries. That’s why we got involved.”

BoJo’s back

It’s no secret that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson loves Australia.

The former British prime minister, known for his buffoonish antics, laissez-faire approach to personal grooming and quite literally partying himself into political oblivion, has visited Sydney for speaking gigs the past two summers.

Now, thanks to the work of some dastardly hackers, we have some idea of what BoJo got up to on his 2023 tour. An immense trove of Johnson’s diaries, documents and invoices dating to during his prime ministership has been published online by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a US-based transparency non-profit.

Headline revelations published by The Guardian reveal Johnson used prime ministerial contacts to approach the Saudi regime once out of office and sought to lobby the United Arab Emirates over a billion-dollar private venture.

We also get pages of BoJo’s notes, written in a form of hieroglyphics you can decipher only if you went to Eton, plus a few nuggets about his relationship with Australia. Like the time he phoned then-prime minister Scott Morrison in 2022 just an hour after a long phone call with the Queen. The trove also contains further details about BoJo’s 2023 trip to Australia, which came months after he quit politics for good.

Johnson was flown in courtesy of the Menzies Research Centre to deliver their annual John Howard Lecture. First on the agenda was a one-on-one meeting with Sussan Ley, then the Liberals’ deputy leader. Perhaps Peter Dutton was unavailable. After his speech to the Menzies crowd that night, Johnson was feted at a private fundraising dinner with Howard and Morrison.

The next day, Johnson was reunited with Scomo at a United Israel Fundraising lunch at Doltone House attended by businessman Steven Lowy, scion of the Westfield dynasty. That evening, he was hosted by our friends at The Australian Financial Review’s Business Person of the Year Gala Dinner, where he was introduced by former federal treasurer Peter Costello (then chair of Nine, owner of this masthead and the Financial Review).

In fact, according to Bojo’s documents, the paper paid $85,000 to hear his thoughts, plus the cost of accommodation at the Fullerton Hotel. That’s a lot of money, but then again, BoJo sounds like a hell of a party guest.

We asked former editor Michael Stutchbury to comment – he was running the joint at that time – but he politely said no.

Johnson had so much fun he was back for more last year, courtesy of celebrity impresario Max Markson, where he did another private event with the Menzies mob, and a podcast interview with future cancelled Sky News host Freya Leach.

No word yet on whether he’ll be joining his home country’s eminently insufferable cricketers in Australia this summer.

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