Brethren feed Angus Taylor, Tony Abbott days after Nazi revelations

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Liberal Party federal president Tony Abbott are enjoying the hospitality of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church this week despite evidence that its elders paid neo-Nazi affiliates and far-right figures to bully and intimidate politicians at the last election.

The church’s public-facing charity, the Rapid Relief Team, is a major sponsor of Abbott and Taylor’s annual Pollie Pedal bike ride, providing breakfast every day of the eight-day tour, which set off from Toowoomba on Saturday.

Taylor, who fell off his bike on the first day of the ride, distanced himself from any alleged criminality as part of the Brethren’s campaign and said, “all members of Pollie Pedal are grateful for RRT’s contribution”.

The church’s members do not vote, and will not eat, befriend or socialise with outsiders under their “doctrine of separation”, but Taylor has previously said the charity plays “an enormously important role in our community”.

There is no suggestion that Abbott or Taylor knew of or supported the Brethren payments to far-right figures. But after this masthead revealed these details of the Brethren campaign, Byron Fay, executive director of political funding group Climate 200, referred the church to the The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission for investigation.

Climate 200, a key financial supporter of teal candidates and a victim of a Brethren-sponsored far-right stunt , asked the commission to probe whether the church or “registered charities operating under or alongside its institutional umbrella” had broken the law.

Promoting or opposing a political party or a candidate for office, and conducting activities that are “contrary to public policy or unlawful” are outlawed under the charities legislation.

More than a dozen Brethren-linked charities have tax-free net assets of more than $295 million – significantly more than Oxfam and Save The Children combined, once their government-funded private school network is included.

Almost all their activities are directed towards helping their own members, not the public.

The church’s spokesman, Lloyd Grimshaw, on Friday denied before a parliamentary committee the church had anything to do with commissioning or paying for the far-right stunts, or election campaign canvassing in general.

Calling it “bizarre” that he was required to answer questions on the matter, he said the thousands-strong, co-ordinated effort at polling booths by Brethren members was simply a volunteering exercise by individual parishioners.

Climate 200 disagreed in its letter to the charities commission.