The Four Corners report on the Exclusive Brethren showed them up as rather icky, undoubtedly. But we all already knew that. However, what disturbed me most about the whole thing was what the Brethren has already been able to get from our politicians:
In 2004, the Brethren won a temporary exemption from testing their children for computer literacy, from then Education Minister Brendan Nelson.
In New South Wales and South Australia, the Brethren have won exemptions from union inspections in their workplaces, and this is mirrored in recent federal legislation.
SENATOR BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: Notably, they have been able to influence John Howard’s WorkChoices legislation with a special exemption for Exclusive Brethren workplaces from union presences, and without the authority of their employees because they’re given no say, the Exclusive Brethren is able to ban unions from coming into any of their work places.
That Howard is doing a favour for such helpful supporters isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that state Labor governments have also agreed to disallowing unions from visiting Brethren businesses. The Brethren’s religion is their affair, but surely when they’re running a commercial business there’s no justification in allowing them to treat their employees differently from any other commercial business.
How would governments feel about, oh, I dunno, a Muslim-run business that wanted to ban union inspections?
Please fix up “bretheren”, Robert. It’s “brethren”.
Done, Johnno.
Was terribly tempting to just replace the word entirely with “arseholes”, though.
Occasionally, in this secular age, when I want reinforcement for my late conversion to atheism, I look at the EB and know I’m right.
Sad that the only thing going for being a member of this band of numbskulls is not having to vote.
i’d like an exemption from income tax, please.
Da Brevren, AKA “The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Bearing Brown Paper Bags and Influence”. (An offshoot of “The Church of the Latter Day Joh Bjelkes”)
Only Monty Python crew could have painted this scenario.
Oops, my mistake. They DID?!
I doubt this an election swinging issue, despite what the ABC would like.
I do think they shouldn’t get treated differently from any other Australians. They should have to vote etc etc
Robert Merkel:
So what? This is just another bit of proof - if any more is needed - that the current political system in Australia is as dodgy as hell …. and yet we still have pompous Australian boofheads toddling around world lecturing all-and-sundry about the joys and delights of democracy. [Australian professional comedians and satirists should lodge a formal complaint about unfair competition from the aforementioned boofheads].
The E.B. are very well aware that in today’s political scene “Money talks; bullshit walks”.
Is Ratty’s featherbedding of the Brethren intended as a symbolic wink and a nod to other larger, less extreme varieties of Christianity?
Does Ratty’s thinking go: “If the Coalition government smiles in a tokenistic way upon these unlovely persons, then other Chiristian groups will whink that the Coalition is Christian-friendly. This feeling of being loved will translate into votes.”?
Or does the Coalition really need those paper bagfuls of fundo money that much?
There were a few brethren families where I went to school and one of the guys tempted fate and the wrath of his parents to hang out with us. One of his favourite stories was how his family, along with most of the rest of the congregation, paid almost no tax because they did things ‘off the books’ whenever possible.
His family were also notorious for lodging dodgy warranty claims on broken goods and an assortment of other petty scams.
A very odd sect to say the least.
This lot should get nothing. I know people that work for a Brethren-owned and run company, and they are the weirdest of the weird. Excluding perhaps Scientologists.
Anyway, they should not get any exemptions from any laws. It goes against having nationwide laws - how about I decide that suddenly I don’t feel like I shouldn’t pay any tax, and if I chuck a bit of money at the current party governing, I don’t have to…
Finally some statements I can agree with, by those long suffering like myself.But remember The Brethren are successful ,just like Perth footballers, and Australians should never be frightened of success.Eh shit, that red headed woman had communists in their life,where is Dick Smith right now, the bastard was quoting Marx recently !?.Where is Jack of the same name!” I was a young fan of Jack Halfpenny years ago, even if he was a little bit overweight, dropped being a member of the commies, and believed in holding meetings with businesses about marketing and safety, and legitimate interest by unions in matters not directly payment and conditions, but still nationally significant.In fact he took one of my ideas up, getting engineers into the workplace to save the business and the jobs!? And business people thought it was great,and i t was Jack Halfpenny and I never really met each other but I did see him once in the Communist book shop in Melbourne which was well stocked,and not necessarily by Russian printers.In fact I picked up some editions of Wilhelm Reich of orgone and Cloud busting phenomena, from the changed adresses. Even Don Chipp in part got round to understanding Reichian philosophy.Pity the man Jack Mundey wasnt a younger man today to stare down the Hockeys as a joke played on Australians,instead heprobably getsthe old age pension ,if he is still alive ,rejected by the ALP recently as needing a increase in pension payment. Yes the Brethren are winners so Christian that all the communist meeting Christians in Oz have seen the errors of their ways.And communists never do.Do they!? Only redheads might.
I suppose the EB aren’t alone in having a religious qualm about voting - JWs and other ’separationists’ share this. And to be fair to the likes of the JWs, they were all but persecuted during wartime for not being gung-ho.
But if it weren’t a quirk of some minority Christian interpretation of the relationship of god to government, I doubt the law would allow it. Imagine a Muslim sect coming along and demanding exclusion from compulsory voting.
The privilege in relation to unions is NOT a right for Brethren not to employ a unionist. It’s a freedom from a union entry onto the premises. And as 4 Corners showed, exists in some state labour IR laws. Given that federal law effectively restricts rights of entry to premises where the union has at least one member, the real force of Howard’s ‘Brethren’ exemption is to stop unions trying to organise such sites - but the law only applies to small firms (20 or less).
Federally, special rules for Brethren date to 1956 with bipartisan support: though the context was radically different. Then we had preference and closed shops for some unions, so Brethren needed protection to being forced between religion and promotion/work in some industries.
The sad fact is, under conservative federal IR laws, Brethren employers hardly need privileges to keep unions out. Unless you have something approaching majority unionism, and a collective history/culture, collective rights in are virtually at the option of the employer if they wish to be hostile. Yes you retain a formal right to ‘be’ in a union. But even then, any business can refuse to bargain collectively, and any ’small’ (meaning small-medium) business can sack you without reason, forcing you to convince a court that the motivation was malign.
Watch them invoke Dachau if their legal protections are removed. It would be interesting to see if Fielding First or Fred Nile stand up for them. I’m not a lawyer, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if you went them for running pyramid/Ponzi schemes. Cults with a Supreme Poo Bah structure tend to be susceptible to weird sexual practices, and I wonder what deals were done with state authorities to forestall any investigations.
The spokesmuppet quoted on Four Corners was slippery as hell and should have been nailed for his evasions (”I don’t know” ought not be acceptable).
One of the thing that struck about 4 Corners program was the way they shifted money. Sounded more like an episode of the Soprano’s than a way to run a church!!
Next thing you know we’ll be seeing an actual Christian Right arising. Watched a documentary on 4 Corners a while back about the Christian Right in America by Pelosi’s daughter…scary stuff. All this talk about the need to ‘retake’ the nation from Hollywood and all those secular dangers.
No crucifix no start?
Gee, brown paper bags, secret ad campaigns, money washed through associate bodies, and blocking outsiders from the workplace.
Quick! Somebody tell Joe Hockey! The Brethren must be uuuuuunion bosses in disguise!
Andrew E: Dachau - “Joy though work”
Even A Current Affair had a go at the Brethren on Tuesday night.
Not that long ago Howard castigated some Muslims for not integrating into Australian society. A couple of weeks later he was defending the EXCLUSIVE Breathen whose name should be a bit of a giveaway that the don’t want to integrate. Talk about yer rank hypocracy.
This is disgusting. We clearly need a “separation of church and state” amendment to our constitution.
How do this bunch of hypocryts get away with not having to Vote.?No wonder the Libs stand by them