CONSPIRACY CLAIM #27

Karen Brewer is an online conspiracy theorist who has posted videos and messages claiming that Australia’s politicians, judges, police and journalists belong to a secret criminal network. As The Guardian put it, she rails against “the cabal of Freemasons she believes controls Australia’s parliament, judiciary, media and bureaucracy”. In her telling, the people who run the world are all Freemasons and DeMolays who kidnap and sacrifice children.

We do not usually need a court to tell us a claim is false. In Ms Brewer’s case, a court already has.

The $875,000 judgment

In April and May 2020, Ms Brewer published posts and videos claiming that Dr Anne Webster, the Nationals federal MP for Mallee in Victoria, her husband Phillip, a GP, and their charity Zoe Support were “participants in a secretive criminal network involved in child sexual abuse”. The Websters sued for defamation in the Federal Court of Australia.

Ms Brewer filed no defence and made no attempt to justify what she had said. In September 2020 Justice Jacqueline Gleeson found the claims false and “wholly indefensible”, and ordered her to pay $875,000 in damages: $350,000 to Dr Webster, including aggravated damages, $225,000 to her husband and $300,000 to their charity. The judge described Ms Brewer as “obsessive and defiant”, adding that she “may not be deterred by this proceeding from further defamatory publications”. According to evidence before the court, she was living in New Zealand.

The court was ruling on one specific set of posts, but they followed exactly the same pattern as the claim on this page: a respected public figure, an imaginary secret network, and an accusation of harming children, without a shred of evidence.

Are all politicians Freemasons?

No. Some politicians, like some doctors, farmers and plumbers, are Freemasons; the great majority are not. Membership is a private choice open to men of good character who believe in a Supreme Being, and Freemasonry bans political discussion in its lodges and takes no position on government policy (see Claim #16 and Claim #24). Being a Freemason gives no one any power over anyone else, inside or outside parliament.

What is DeMolay?

DeMolay International is a leadership and character-building organisation for young men aged 12 to 21. It was founded in Kansas City in 1919 by Frank S. Land with nine boys, and is named after Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. It has Masonic origins and adult Masons often serve as its mentors, but its members are teenagers and young men, not politicians, and it has about 12,000 active members worldwide, including chapters in Australia.

Its members are taught seven “Cardinal Virtues”: love of parents, reverence for sacred things, courtesy, comradeship, fidelity, cleanliness of mind and conscience, and patriotism. Former United States presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Gerald Ford all served as its honorary Grand Masters. Accusing a youth group built on those values of harming children turns the truth on its head.

Kidnapping and sacrifice?

There is no worship of any kind in a Masonic lodge, and nothing and no one is ever sacrificed. The accusation that a secret group kills children in hidden rituals is one of the oldest lies in history, told about early Christians, about Jews and about supposed Satanic cults, and every time it has been investigated it has been found to be false (see Claim #04 and Claim #18).

Conclusion: Politicians are not all Freemasons, DeMolay is a youth organisation for teenage boys and young men, and neither Freemasons nor DeMolays kidnap or sacrifice anyone. Ms Brewer has already been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay $875,000 for making this kind of accusation against an MP, her husband and their charity, a claim the court found “wholly indefensible”. This one is no different.