SIX religious organisations have been targeted along with the National Socialist Network and so-called “sovereign citizen and cooker movements” in the final report of the Victorian parliamentary Inquiry into the Recruitment Methods and Impacts of Cults and Organised Fringe Groups,
The inquiry reported in July it had received “extensive testimony” from more than 300 “survivors, experts, and advocacy bodies”.
Äccording to government and media sources, “submissions detailed specific, severe examples of behavior-based coercive control” by various organisations.
We checked and. as suspected, the inquiry definitely did not include any submissions about the Victorian Labor government’s actions during the Covid pandemic, when the entire population of the state was subjected to “behaviour-based coercive control”.
It is evident, that apart from some legitimate complaints against manipulative cults and sects and rogue preachers, that the inquiry has the objective of criminalizing organisations that pose a threat to the social control agenda of the so-called progressive Left, and particularly those with a political focus.
The staggering hypocrisy of the inquiry is made glaringly obvious by its listing of the types of “cult manipulation”, most, if not all of which were perpetrated on the people of Victoria during Covid by the Labor government of Dan Andrews. These are the categories listed by the inquiry:
1. Social Isolation and “Shunning”
Enforced Family Separation: Leaders forced strict rules requiring parents to completely cut ties with (“shun”) their own children, and vice versa, if they showed disobedience or left the group.
Banning Everyday External Contact: Restricting members from watching television, using popular websites, utilizing social media platforms, or eating meals with anyone outside the group.
Digital Surveillance: Using mandatory monitoring software on computers and phones to track members’ movements and digital communications.
2. Psychological and Spiritual Manipulation
Apocalyptic Fear Tactics: Conditioning members to believe that the world was ending and that leaving the group meant they would “perish”, instilling prolonged fear and a feeling of being permanently trapped.
Weaponised Language: Redefining and restricting language within the community so that any questioning or criticism was turned inward, causing victims to internalize blame and shame.
Love Bombing and Deceptive Recruitment: Targeting university students, international students, and vulnerable individuals with aggressive affection and “simple answers to complex problems” to establish early emotional dependence.
3. Financial Abuse and Exploitative Labour
Forced Free Labour: Submissions linked some groups to systematic labor exploitation, drawing comparisons to international cases where women and members were coerced into providing free labor under the guise of religious duty.
Surrender of Income: Conditioning members to turn over their private assets and personal income. Leaders collected continuous tithes and mandatory donations without providing any financial transparency.
4. Severe Personal and Physical Restrictions
Educational Deprivation: Intentionally preventing young people from pursuing higher education or blocking girls from accessing standard school qualifications.
Forced Relationships: Erasing personal autonomy by requiring formal leadership permission to date, forcing arranged marriages, or dictating exactly when and whom a member must marry.
Medical Neglect: Restricting or outright prohibiting members from accessing life-saving medical care, emergency blood transfusions, or essential pharmaceutical interventions.
Most of these listed abuses by cults and sects were inflicted on the population of Victoria by the Socialist Left Labor government of Dan Andrews and other governments during Covid and some are even part of general government outside of “pandemic emergency powers”.
An obvious target of the inquiry was the Church of Scientology, an international non-Christian, “self improvement” sect whose controversial and manipulative methods of recruitment and training are well known worldwide.
Then there was the Jehovah’s Witnesses church, a long established, unorthodox Christian sect whose members walk suburbs seeking recruits, and are well known and generally accepted in Australia and other countries, although membership can be demanding and strictly controlled.
The inquiry cited “high-control practices, particularly the policy of mandatory “shunning” (enforced social isolation of former members from family and friends) and strict rules around internal tracking.”
Another mysterious sect targeted in the inquiry was the Two By Twos aka The Truth, described as a loose, international network of home-based Christian fellowships, accused by former members of forced isolation, strict gender rules, and allegations of systemic child safety harm within the group.
The Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal sect, was also targeted and described as “a highly secretive Christian fundamentalist group”, which has been the subject of ACA and 60 Minutes investigations involving former members complaining of controlling behaviour, ultra-conservative value indoctrination and doomsday preaching.
According to the inquiry committee “brave testimonies from its survivors were a primary catalyst that originally prompted the Victorian State Government to launch the inquiry”.
The main problem with this church was its leader, the late Pastor Noel Hollins, who demanded loyalty and held the delusion that his group was “the one true church” and that others were “false religion”.
However, under the religious freedom (free speech) provisions of Section 116 of the Constitution, Hollins and others are entitled to preach their versions of the truth. It is up to congregations to deal with errant, abusive behaviour or simply to walk. Criminal behaviour should also be reported.
A South Korean church called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus was described as a “millennialist movement” and “named by multiple experts and witnesses for utilizing aggressive, deceptive ‘love-bombing’ recruitment tactics specifically targeting young adults and international students on Victorian university campuses.”
The church is certainly on the crazy spectrum and its leader Lee Man-hee, teaches he is the “Promised Pastor who alone understands the secret, hidden meanings of the Book of Revelation”, and that only its registered members—specifically 144,000 people—will achieve salvation and eternal life during the approaching apocalypse.
The not so crazy and apparently more mainstream Pentecostal church targeted by the inquiry is City Builders Church in Sale, Gippsland, whose leader Brian Heath has been attacked by Nine News, the ABC and The Age for his outspoken conservative political messaging.
Pastor Heath also fell out with his daughter Clare Heath-McIvor over her failed “arranged marriage” to a man believed by her father to be a reformed homosexual.
Ms Heath-McIvor appeared at the inquiry as the leader of a group called the Cult Survivors Network and called for a register of known cults, citing “coordinated efforts to infiltrate political parties and centrally control an agenda” and labeled her father’s church a “high-control group” and alleged “conversion practices and emotional manipulation”.
Her sister is Victorian Upper House Liberal MP Renee Heath, whose pre-selection to the Liberal Party prompted a storm of outrage among some party members including the then leader John Pesutto, and claims, amplified by the media, that evangelical Christians were plotting to take over the Liberal Party.
The joke of the inquiry was the submission by the Far Left comrades from the Victorian Trades Hall Council who warned that “far-right extremist groups” like the National Socialist Network are actively using classic “cult-like psychological indoctrination tactics to prey on isolated individuals.”
The comrades explained that the NSN intentionally preyed on isolated, vulnerable young men on the fringes of society, utilizing intense psychological indoctrination, “love-bombing” camaraderie, and strict internal hierarchies to control its members.
Ironically, the inquiry targeted “Sovereign Citizen” and “Cooker” movements for their role in “the pandemic-era anti-lockdown protests”, but failed to mention the State Government’s use of intimidation, open violence and extortion against Victorians who refused to bow to demands for vaccination, mask wearing and social isolation.
“Submissions highlighted how these groups transitioned from anti-government protests into highly insular, radicalized online communities,” the inquiry reported.
The inquiry was told these fringe groups used “apocalyptic” fear tactics, alternative disinformation echo chambers, and financial exploitation (charging vulnerable people high fees for illegitimate legal documents) to isolate members from mainstream society.
The inquiry committee said its official focus remained on “general behaviors of coercive control” rather than policing specific religious beliefs, but recommended “outlawing coercive control in group settings” and that “world-leading laws be enacted in Victoria within three years”.
The Lower House Legal and Social Issues Committee wants the Victorian Law Reform Commission to review legislative options within two years, before group-based coercion is criminalised by 2029.
The Victorian Parliament held a similar inquiry into “far right extremism” in 2022 and found “a decreased public trust in mainstream media and government, leading to the rise of social media as a major source of information.” Post Covid, do we wonder why?
And how interesting that a Far Left government plans to enact laws against “coercive control in group settings” by 2029 when 2030 is generally seen as the target year for whole-of-government coercive control of populations under the UN Agenda 2030 policy framework.
Global mass control of populations is planned under the auspices of “saving the planet” from supposed ecological apocalypse caused by “global warming” which in turn is blamed on industrial civilization and the burning of so-called fossil fuels.
