Where art thou, Brethren?

A small private company claims to be the sole source of a $370,000 campaign supporting the Howard Government at the last federal election. David Marr reports.

Mark Mackenzie lives in a modest house on the fringes of Sydney and runs a modest business selling and servicing pumps. He is a thoroughly inconspicuous man. Today may well be the first time his name has appeared in a newspaper. But this foot soldier in the secretive Exclusive Brethren is a mover and shaker in Australian politics.

A little company owned entirely by Mackenzie paid $370,000 to mount its own campaign for the return of the Howard Government during the last election. At least, that's the Australian Electoral Commission's answer to the riddle of whose money lay behind a slew of ads and pamphlets in three states in September and October 2004 attacking the Greens and calling for the re-election of John Howard.

The Exclusive Brethren denies masterminding the campaign despite all the aggressive ads and pamphlets being authorised by members of the sect. After complaints by the Greens leader, Bob Brown, the Electoral Commission began a year-long investigation into the source of the funding. Just before Christmas the commission announced Mackenzie's company, Willmac Enterprises Pty Ltd, was the campaign's sole paymaster.

"The AEC has found that expenditure on all seven advertisements and pamphlets was disclosed in a third party return by Willmac Enterprises following the 2004 federal election," the commission said on its website on December 19. "Further, there is no evidence that Willmac Enterprises received any gifts or donations from other sources that contributed to the costs of the advertisements and pamphlets."

So what was Willmac's line of business? Mackenzie declined to discuss the issue. He told the Herald he had many children, was pressed and "unable to comment at this point".

Now in his early 40s, Mark Mackenzie has been in the pump business for many years. Former members of the sect say he was once employed by a pump company in Parramatta owned and operated by a brother of Bruce Hales, the sect's world leader. Members of this tightly disciplined sect refer to their leader as the Elect Vessel, the Lord's Representative on Earth, the Paul of Our Day and Mr Bruce.

Mackenzie's little company, Willmac Enterprises, was incorporated three weeks before the 2004 election with Mackenzie as the sole shareholder and only director. Despite having capital of only $10, it almost immediately found a small fortune to pay for pro-Howard ads in the Adelaide Advertiser, the Hobart Mercury, suburban papers through the Adelaide Hills, and in John Howard's electorate of Bennelong.