Far-Right secretive political group Advance appears at election inquiry

Despite Advance’s appearance at the 2025 election inquiry, Australians are none the wiser about what Advance really does, who’s funding them, who the people involved are, what their agenda is and what link binds them, writes Belinda Jones.

THE FAR-RIGHT POLITICAL advocacy group Advance Aus Limited appeared before the Australian Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the 2025 federal election late yesterday afternoon. Chair Vicki Dunne and Company Secretary Mark Spencer represented Advance. Executive Director Matthew Sheahan did not appear.

For background, Dunne served in the A.C.T. Parliament for the Liberal Party for 19 years, the latter years under then-Leader of the Opposition, Zed Seselja. Zed went on to serve as a Liberal Senator from 2013 until he was defeated by Senator David Pocock in 2022.

Advance unsuccessfully campaigned against Pocock in 2022.

At yesterday's public hearing, Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May asked Spencer why he failed to provide his biography to the inquiry’s committee; he claimed he hadn't been asked to provide one. He didn’t volunteer to the committee that he was the former Director of Public Policy at Christian Schools Australia.

For those not familiar with Advance, since its inception in 2017, it has gained a reputation as a somewhat clandestine outfit with many wealthy backers, including One Nation-backer Gina Rinehart. Dunne told the committee that Advance now has 662,973 “supporters”; she later admitted these were "email subscribers" to the Advance website.

Dunne also told the committee that Advance has 45,645 “grassroots” donors averaging around $200 per donation, including “partners” who contribute “regular, recurring donations” that Dunne likened to Catholic “planned giving”. Interestingly, both Dunne and Seselja are devout Catholics.

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Hodgins-May pressed Dunne and Spencer on whether Advance has a physical office and how many staff they have. Dunne was evasive and could only estimate that Advance had about “30 staff” of contractors and consultants, which fluctuated all the time. It was established that Advance does not have an actual office, just a virtual one – the Advance team all work from home.

Both Dunne and Spencer mentioned during the hearing that if Advance appears in public or has an office, it faces aggressive or anti-social behaviour.

On the one hand, Dunne argued that Advance is enormously popular and has over half a million supporters while simultaneously being scared to appear in public because of public backlash. Perhaps they are not as popular as they think.

A check of their popularity on social media revealed very modest numbers too: Advance’s Facebook has 211K followers, Instagram 96K followers and X (formerly Twitter) just 20K.

Advance’s own array of culture war petitions on their website attracts a fraction of their so-called 662K “supporters”; most petitions manage five per cent of that number or less and fail to meet their signature targets. Another sign they’re not as popular as they think.

Greens Senator Steph Hodgins-May questioning Advance at the 2025 election inquiry (Screenshot via YouTube)

Like a dentist extracting a mouthful of teeth, Hodgins-May painstakingly continued, reading out a list of names of people associated with both the Liberal Party and Advance; she asked about the Liberal Party Associated Entity The Cormack Foundation and what sort of consultancy work Whitestone Strategic had done for Advance.

Dunne reiterated to the Senator that Advance had complied with Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) law on all donations and suggested Whitestone had done some marketing and comms for Advance.

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After much to-and-froing, Hodgins-May calmly asked Dunne why Advance shouldn’t be considered an AEC Associated Entity, given the fact that Advance is “stacked” with Liberal Party operatives and received $500K from a Liberal Party associated entity. Dunne objected, through the Chair, to the word “stacked” but could not explain the amazing coincidence of Liberal Party connections nor the half-million-dollar Cormack Foundation donation.

Dunne didn’t say a word when Hodgins-May read out the name Stephen Doyle, nor did she elaborate on his connection to Whitestone.

Doyle, Zed Seselja’s former Chief of Staff and brother-in-law, founded Whitestone with former Australian Christian Lobby director of communications David Hutt in 2017, who is no longer with the company.

Whitestone has also provided their services to several sitting Liberal parliamentarians, including Andrew Hastie, Alex Antic, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Claire Chandler. Doyle is also listed as Advance’s Campaign Manager for the 2025 election. Dunne and Spencer didn’t mention that either.

It has been previously reported by the Guardian that former Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) head Lyle Shelton’s ‘personal website is registered to Whitestone’. Whitestone’s ASIC address is also shared with a number of anti-trans advocacy groups.

So, despite Advance’s appearance at the hearing, Dunne's long-winded Opening Statement and the committee's clear, fair questions, Australians are none the wiser about what Advance really does, who’s funding them, who the people involved are, what their agenda is and what link binds them.

Dunne told the committee that thousands of “grassroots” people lined Advance’s coffers with small donations, not just billionaire backers. Therefore, the link can’t be money if rich and poor alike are “patriots” and “supporters”.

The link can’t be a social media uprising because Advance’s social media following is also a fraction of their so-called “supporters” after eight years of political advocacy.

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The link can’t be a groundswell of popular support for Advance’s imported culture war policies; otherwise, those Advance petitions would have met or exceeded their signature goals.

Dunne says the fact that they’re all connected to the Liberal Party is pure coincidence, so it can’t be that.

Perhaps the link is religion, since so many are or have been affiliated with religious organisations or have openly professed their faith.

Religion would also explain the imported culture wars from the U.S. Bible Belt. It would explain why, despite Advance’s bulging war chest, their message isn’t cutting through in Australia’s largely secular society.

Since Advance started in 2018, the Liberal vote has steadily declined nationwide. The Conservative vote is now split between the Coalition and One Nation, with polls predicting neither would garner enough votes to hold power outright.

Advance appears to be driving that decline, or maybe that’s just a coincidence too.

Maybe we’ll learn more in a few weeks when we get the answers to all those questions Dunne and Spencer took on notice.

Or maybe Advance will remain the secretive third-party political organisation pushing a secretive political agenda by secretive political people with lots and lots of money from secretive billionaire backers.

Belinda Jones is an IA assistant editor and a former teacher and federal political candidate. You can follow Belinda Jones on Twitter @belindajones68.