Exclusive Brethren launches podcast to ‘bust’ a barrage of bad press

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Our old mates at the Exclusive Brethren must be feeling the pinch from a bunch of critical reporting, including the revelation of their intensive (and expensive) involvement in the recent federal election, their antediluvian treatment of women and serious allegations of sexual misconduct.

Regular readers will recall that the Brethren made their presence felt during the federal election, donating and campaigning under the radar.

Bruce Hales (front left), the global leader of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, preaches in the US.

Their response to some of this is … a podcast! Well, everyone’s doing it, we guess.

How times change. Circa 2008, the famously secretive men of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church still thought that the internet was a “pipeline of filth” that would defile and contaminate them. Now they want to flush some of their own content down the online pipeline – to bust the “myths” about themselves.

The church took to Instagram (more modernisation) to announce: “We will soon launch a new podcast featuring the men and women of our community, focused on clearing up the inaccuracies, myths and biases about us, and telling everyone what life is really like inside our church.”

Sadly, the church’s first foray into modernisation, an Instagram account with only 150 followers, is yet to reach Abbie Chatfield levels of popularity. But “build it and he will come”, as Moses said in Exodus 33: 18-23. (Or was that Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams?)

To be honest, CBD thought the announcement picture of four chunky white blokes with side parts was all a bit samey. Turns out we were right. All the gents pictured are the sons of multimillionaire Sydney businessman Bruce D. Hales, known variously as BDH, the Lord’s Servant, the Elect Vessel or, when talking business, the CEO.

Back to the podcast. When Lavinia Richardson – a sparky young woman who left the church two years ago – volunteered to be a guest on their show, their response was to block her. They say they’re busting myths. She tells us “but they’d never open themselves to real scrutiny”.

We reached out to the church, eager to find out the name of the planned pod, but didn’t hear back. The Bruce Hales Experience doesn’t quite do it for us. Boys of God might be better.

Under supervision

Cancer is sensitive business, so you can imagine former patients at Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital weren’t thrilled to receive a letter this year advising them of “irregularities” in medical records made by their doctor, Professor Allan Spigelman.

Before his departure in June 2023, Spigelman led the hospital’s genetics cancer service as its only cancer genetics specialist, offering patients advanced testing for mutations in their genes to see if they’re at greater risk of cancer.

It usually involves multiple experts – including genetic counsellors – who can help patients interpret results and pick up anything that’s missed by another doctor, but some staff members grew increasingly concerned that Spigelman had become a bit of a lone ranger.

Emeritus Professor Allan Spigelman photographed in 2015 at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst.

As regular readers will recall, an investigation launched after his somewhat acrimonious departure found he was failing to meet basic privacy, consent and record-keeping standards. Worse, the investigation found one patient suffered “adverse outcomes” after receiving incorrect advice about their cancer risk, and another 20 patients were at potential risk due to errors in their records. They’re looking into the medical records of another 3300 patients.

Now things have gone from bad to worse for the brother of ex-ABC chair and former NSW chief justice James Spigelman. For the next year, the former one-man band will be required to practice under the supervision of a qualified clinical geneticist and cannot treat more than 30 patients in a week under conditions placed on his registration by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

His position on the board of South Eastern Sydney local health district is also in doubt, a spokesperson confirmed, “due to concerns raised regarding his practice”. He still has an honorary position of emeritus professor at the University of NSW.

And while St Vincent’s won’t say when their full investigation will be complete, the state health department seems to have wrapped up theirs … rather quickly.

NSW Health told CBD that, despite Spigelman working across six of their local health districts over that period, a review of reportable incidents did not identify “any concerns in relation to the clinician”.

Six degrees of STC’s Mitchell Butel

Bacon’s Law holds that anyone working in Hollywood can be linked through their film roles to Kevin Bacon within six steps. If Monday night’s Sydney Theatre Company 2026 season launch is anything to go by, the company’s artistic director Mitchell Butel might be our answer to the prolific Pennsylvanian.

The links between Butel and his cast and creatives are extensive. Butel has lured actor David Wenham to return to the STC playing a Homer-esque figure in the one-man show An Iliad. Butel is godfather to Wenham’s daughter Eliza Jane, and the pair first worked together on the play Blue Remembered Hills at the Crossroads Theatre in 1993 (Richard Roxburgh was also in the production).

The friends then reunited for the 2003 Australian comedy thriller Gettin’ Square.

Wenham won the best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards (now the ACCTA Awards) for his role in that movie, which also starred Sam Worthington and featured Helen Thomson and Jonathan Biggins, all of whom figure in STC’s 2026 season.

“I’m a theatrical matchmaker, there you go,” says Butel, who will tread the boards in The Normal Heart, 33 years after his STC debut in Six Degrees of Separation alongside Jacki Weaver and Matt Day.

Butel says the reunion is a happy coincidence – one he realised only after mapping out his first season following predecessor Kip Williams’ departure to London’s West End and Broadway.

Biggins will reprise The Gospel According to Paul. Sam Worthington, best known for his turn in James Cameron’s blue epic, Avatar, teams up with Pamela Rabe for Doubt. Thomson is a widow turned possible serial killer in The Unfriend. She is better known as posh Lynelle in Colin from Accounts, which once featured a cameo by – who else – Bacon.

Acting the part

Readers, did you know that Penny Wong is Australia’s acting PM?

We neither. That’s because our foreign minister tends to refrain from the practice of sending out lightning-fast releases mentioning the fact.

This is in stark contrast with the man who usually takes on the acting PM job, Richard Marles, whose media team last week wasted no time changing the letterhead on his emails to make it known to email list recipients that “Richard Marles MP, Acting Prime Minister” was actually boss.

The Victorian MP certainly made himself busy while warming the PM’s seat, touring the breakfast TV and radio circuit as Albo was caught wearing the wrong shirt at the Pacific Island Forum in Solomon Islands last week.

Marles has joined the PM in PNG, leaving a yawning gap in the schedules of TV news programs, which we are pretty certain Wong is unlikely to fill, if Monday’s media release from the Department of Foreign Affairs – about the Ninth Australia-China High Level Dialogue – is anything to go by. Not only did it fail to mention Wong’s elevation to the top job, but it failed to mention Wong by name.

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