‘More power to redheads’: Brethren leader backs Hanson, building nuclear bombs

The separatist Exclusive Brethren, whose secretive multimillion-dollar campaign supporting the Coalition at the last federal election is under intense scrutiny, has swung behind One Nation after its leader praised the “red-haired lady” at a recent religious meeting.

As well as backing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, Brethren “Elect Vessel” Bruce Hales told his flock Australia should use its uranium to “build a few bombs”, to obliterate Iran and that the Brethren needed to “overcome … our Jewishness”.

Hales signalled his change of political heart in a Plymouth Brethren Christian Church address, transcribed and published recently to his 50,000 followers worldwide and subsequently leaked.

After this masthead revealed elders of the sect had secretly paid neo-Nazi associates to tail and harass the prime minister and other MPs at the last federal election, the church’s spokesman denounced antisemitism.

The release of the new Hales address comes as Freedom for Faith, a Christian charity advocating on behalf of various religions including the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the NSW Presbyterian Church, wrote to a parliamentary committee saying its decision to call Hales and his son, Gareth, to answer questions about the election was a threat to the Brethren’s religious freedom.

Leaked messages published by this masthead showed Gareth Hales was among the Brethren elders involved in the “dirty tricks” election operation that targeted opponents of the Coalition with far-right stunts.

On August 22, the day after the church’s spokesman told a parliamentary committee the Brethren had no involvement in the election, global leader Bruce Hales delivered another political message.

“God’s resources are limitless,” he told the flock. “See, that’s the trouble, part of the trouble with this government in this country, is they want to leave all the resources in the ground. How thick could you get?

“Oil and bauxite … coal … gas … We ought to get enough uranium together and build a few bombs,” Hales said. “So I hope that red-haired lady gets a chance. More power to the redheads.”

Two church sources, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution, said this was a clear reference to Hanson, whom Hales has previously praised. The insiders said Hales went on to say the bombs built with Australian uranium should be used in the Middle East to obliterate Iran. This line did not appear in the printed address.

Brethren are forbidden by their doctrine from bearing arms.

“It’s not exactly our matter. But we need to pray for it, and be sympathetic with the forces that are right, that God would uphold and endorse,” Hales told the Brethren.

Within the Brethren – a wealthy sect with charities worth hundreds of millions of dollars – Bruce Hales’ words are considered holy writ, and Hales himself “so close to the Lord Jesus that he can feel his heartbeat”.

Asked if the Brethren or its members had contacted One Nation to offer help, the party’s Victorian leader Warren Pickering said: “not to my knowledge”. National director James Ashby declined to comment.

Coalition MPs have defended the Brethren since news of the church’s far-right election plot broke, as a chorus of Labor and crossbench MPs called on Liberal and National Party leaders to denounce the church’s use of “intimidation” and its ties to white supremacists.

After speaking about Hanson and redheads in his August 22 meeting, Hales addressed a member of his congregation saying, “You Jew, you’re just a Jew, aren’t you? You are, aren’t you? Admit it.”

The member agreed with the “Man of God” of his church saying, “Yes, that’s my heritage.” Hales said the following day that his family also had Jewish heritage, adding that “boy, they look like Jews”. “So it’s something we’ve got to overcome, is our Jewishness. You’re not a Jew, are you?” Hales asked another congregant.

He also spoke approvingly of keeping secrets, saying: “Why should we tell the world everything we know? When you’ve been well taught and well instructed, why should you tell the world all about it? Keep it to yourself.”

A spokesman for the church said Hales’ statements about uranium were “a comment on the resources which God gave humans, not on war”. As for Hanson, Hales, like any other citizen, was “entitled to his own political views”.

Regarding the comments about Jews, the spokesman said: “Some members of our church have Jewish heritage, and … we share deep religious and familial roots with the Jewish faith and community, and completely reject antisemitism”.

Senior Coalition figures, including Nationals leader Matt Canavan, have launched a spirited defence of the Brethren and labelled the parliamentary inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters a witch-hunt.

Four sources with knowledge of the sect’s secret election influence campaign said Brethren elders had shifted their attention even before the Coalition’s 2025 defeat, with church middlemen reaching out to One Nation and other smaller parties with offers to help. In Victoria, a Brethren member was identified in photos from the election campaigning for One Nation.

Some of the far-right figures enlisted for the Brethren’s covert stunt operation have also been linked to One Nation. At least two of the right-wing figures, who flew around the country coordinating neo-Nazi associates and payments on behalf of the Brethren, have since worked with Hanson’s party in Victoria, this masthead has confirmed.

Hanson spoke at a rally in Melbourne late last year organised by Morgan Jonas, one of the other far-right figures involved in the stunts, and who endorsed unofficial Brethren posters during the campaign.

Another far-right middleman used for the Brethren stunts, Chris de Bruyne, hosted Hanson and One Nation MPs at events held by Australian Firebrand, the lobbying firm he runs with his wife. That company and De Bruyne’s wife also endorsed multiple Brethren posters during the election, including the mysterious “Make Australia happy again” signs that popped up on the campaign trail, reflecting a line coined by Bruce Hales.

Hanson has drawn praise from the extreme edge of politics and religion, including the Grand Wizard of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, Christian Revivalist pastor Thomas Robb, who recently told Nine News that Hanson’s rise in the polls was “encouraging” as “she’s demonised by the same people that demonise us”.

In a letter to the parliamentary committee last week, obtained by this masthead, the Freedom for Faith religious coalition objected to the Hales being called to answer for the election plot because of their leadership of the church, calling it religious discrimination.

Freedom for Faith’s executive director Mike Southon said his organisation stood up for religious freedom “even [for] those we may disagree with”.

Committee member and independent MP Monique Ryan, responded saying it had nothing to do with religion as there was evidence the church had run a coordinated campaign without declaring itself a significant third party or disclosing its election spending.

Under Australia’s charity rules, “a religious charity can rank policies but must not endorse candidates or do anything that could be perceived as partisan”, she said.

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