Exclusive Brethren, Advance will be summonsed to election inquiry if they don’t turn up

Elders of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and right-wing lobby group Advance face being compulsorily summonsed before Federal parliament to answer for their actions at the last election, after both groups declined to appear voluntarily.

The parliamentary committee investigating the conduct of the election said it would invite both groups again, but if they continued to resist, would issue the summons.

A summons is a serious and unusual step for a committee to take, and if ignored can lead to charges of contempt of parliament, or penalties including a formal reprimand, a fine, or in extreme cases, imprisonment.

“The committee acknowledges that this is an extraordinary step, but one it believes necessary,” said committee chair Jerome Laxale in a statement.

The groups had already “declined to appear at previous hearings in November 2025, and March and May 2026,” the statement said.

“Given multiple attempts have been made to have these witnesses appear … the Committee has also resolved to issue a summons to compel their attendance if witnesses continue to decline these invitations.”

The church has consistently denied it had anything to do with the mass movement of its members in the weeks leading up to the election, saying they were all individually moved to support the campaign for then-Opposition leader Peter Dutton.

But Laxale’s statement said more than 75 published submissions to the committee inquiry had mentioned the church, and had noted their presence in about 80 different suburbs in federal electorates across Australia.

“Given the volume of submissions the committee has received, and the level of community concern about their involvement in the electoral process, it is not just in the committee’s interest, but Australia’s interest, to understand the involvement of both of these third parties in the 2025 federal election and their influence on the electoral process.”

The Brethren was not registered as a significant third party in the campaign.

Brethren members also declared donations of $700,000 dollars to lobby group Advance, which conducted an extensive advertising campaign on behalf of the Coalition at the election.

Advance acted as the highest-spending third-party campaigner at the election, raising more than $13 million. It spent heavily on social media and real-world advertising against the Greens and Labor, describing the government as “Weak, Woke, Sending us Broke”.

In 2018, two executives of the Retail Food Group challenged a joint parliamentary committee summons in the High Court, saying the committee lacked the constitutional power to compel witnesses. The High Court ruled against them and the executives were forced to appear.

The Brethren and Advance have been approached for comment.

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