Plymouth Brethren Christian Church spokesman and elder Lloyd Grimshaw is doing a very specific thing at the parliamentary inquiry into interference at the 2025 federal election: he’s trying to say that the mass participation in the election campaign was all about individual church members acting voluntarily, not the church itself.
So member for Kooyong Monique Ryan asks him specifically, and quotes his “Man of God” Bruce Hales to do so: “Among the writings of Mr Hales is a statement that says that everything you do in your daily life is church business. That being the case, there’s a certain inconsistency here?”
The quote she’s referring to is one from 2014, when Hales said: “Assembly-minded persons would carry the feature of the house of God everywhere we go. So wherever we are, in any circumstance, in every detail of our lives, we’d be related to the house of God”.
Grimshaw says this should be read in context, “that you know, it’s in your daily life, the church members’ daily life, they’re observed as being part of the Christian faith, and they should act accordingly. So they should act in accord with their Christian faith.”
Following today’s reports about the far-right, Ryan is going through the far-right stunts one by one that she personally was subjected to during the 2025 election campaign and asking Grimshaw to answer whether he knew of any of these people.
“I’d like to ask … whether the brethren has any relationship with or has funded in any way a former member of the Proud Boys by the name of Harrison McLean, who interrupted an asylum seeker resource centre event on the 23rd of April?”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard the name,” he says. McLean has declined to comment to this masthead about his electoral activity.
What about agitator Matt Trihey, she asks – who conducted a stunt in Kooyong? Neo-Nazi Joel Davis? No and no, Grimshaw answers.
She’s also asked about the payments, reported in this masthead this morning, to right-wing agitators to run stunts. Again, Grimshaw dead-bats it using the familiar argument.
“The Brethren, Plymouth Brethren Christian Church never funded one cent to any political cause or party or candidate in the 2025 election.”
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