The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is led by Sydney-based accountant Bruce Hales. This is the line repeated in almost every media report when a Brethren story breaks. What rarely follows is any examination of what his accounting practice actually looks like — who he audits, what he earns, and how his income connects to the wider Ecosystem he leads.
This investigation examines the results of a full director search for Bruce Hales, covering current and past directorships, shareholdings, and companies where he is the named auditor. The results were shared with ABC News Four Corners, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of their own reporting on Westlab and Voltex.
BD Hales & Co is registered at 2a Hope Street, Ermington — an address that sits at the heart of the Hales family business empire. Other companies that have been registered at this same address include Covid contract winners Sante Global, 2San and Medco Solutions, along with Dean Hales' Ox Tools. One address. One family. Multiple pandemic-era contract winners.
Bruce Hales: Current and Former Business Connections
Bruce Hales held the status of registered auditor and, until 2024, was also a registered Tax Practitioner. A full director search reveals the following registered connections:
Five Audit Clients — Three Companies Worth Scrutiny
Bruce Hales is currently the appointed auditor for five registered companies: Westlab Pty Ltd, Westlab Holdings Pty Ltd, Voltex Electrical Accessories Pty Ltd, Voltex Holdings Pty Ltd and Bell River Homes Pty Ltd. He was formerly auditor for the now-deregistered Edgeworth Junior Soccer Club Limited and for All Pumps Holdings Pty Ltd.
That a registered auditor serves essentially three client businesses is, by any commercial standard, a very modest practice. Each of those three businesses warrants closer examination.
Prior to the pandemic, Westlab was a laboratory equipment and supplies company owned by the Grace family from Victoria. During the pandemic, it was awarded contracts for PPE, medical supplies and Covid tests — reported at approximately $130 million in value.
Brethren Exposed obtained Westlab accounts for years ending 2021, 2022 and 2023. The numbers are remarkable.
The reported $130 million in known Covid contracts and the $52 million base suggest roughly $460 million in additional revenue unaccounted for by what was publicly disclosed. Our research suggests this came from state government contracts for Rapid Antigen Tests — for example, a Victoria government contract where Westlab was listed as a supplier but the breakdown by supplier was not disclosed.
"Bruce Hales acting as auditor is not the only connection between the Hales family and Westlab. Sante Global, owned by Gareth and Charles Hales, worked with Westlab to deliver the Covid tests."
Brethren Exposed Investigation — October 2025The connection runs deeper than an auditor relationship. Sante Global, owned by Gareth and Charles Hales, appears to have acted as the middleman between Westlab and the private label manufacturer of the Rapid Antigen Tests, MP Biomedicals. The accounts filed by Sante Global appear to support this. Based on those accounts, it is our belief that the Hales family made a larger profit from the Covid tests than the Grace family — with combined profits after tax for Sante Global and Westlab exceeding $150 million.
Former Health Minister Greg Hunt was the minister responsible for many of the Westlab contract awards while in government. Since leaving office, Hunt became a board advisor to three Brethren-connected companies — including Connected Global, owned by the Grace family. Hunt has issued statements to both ABC and The Age in response to questions about these appointments.
Voltex is owned by the Tunley family from South Australia and supplies electrical accessories. In March 2022, days before the federal election, the company donated $115,000 to the Liberal Party. The donation was initially recorded incorrectly by the Australian Electoral Commission as coming from "Voltex Electrical Pty Ltd" — a one-man local electrician from Victoria. Brethren Exposed obtained clarification from the AEC that the record should read Voltex Electrical Accessories Pty Ltd, and the AEC has agreed to amend accordingly.
As the named auditor of Voltex, it is difficult to see how Bruce Hales would not have been aware of a $115,000 political donation in the year ending June 2022. The donation does not appear in either the Voltex Electrical Accessories accounts or the Voltex Holdings accounts for that year. The Voltex Electrical Accessories accounts for 2022 also show a loan of $26 million from Voltex Holdings — a figure that does not appear in the corresponding Voltex Holdings accounts.
Bell River Homes is owned by NSW-based David Sandeman along with his sons Chad and Switzerland-based Leigh. For the year ending June 2024, Bruce Hales is named as the appointed auditor — yet the accounts were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, not by Bruce Hales.
Leigh Sandeman is not only a director and founder of Bell River Homes but is also a director of Zenixspace, which appears to be the direct European replacement for the sold Unispace business. Other Zenixspace figures include Sebastian Parsons and Luke Robertson (both linked to Covid contracts) and Rob Critchley, the UK-based consultant connected to numerous Hales family businesses.
Other Income: The Gospel Trust Connection
Auditing two companies a year would not, by any reasonable standard, fund the lifestyle associated with the Hales family compound in Sydney. Brethren Exposed obtained a copy of grants awarded by one Gospel Trust, showing that grants were provided to Bruce Hales on a monthly basis, totalling approximately $16,000 per year from that single trust.
If Gospel Trusts across the PBCC worldwide are making similar monthly grant payments to Bruce Hales, the total represents a substantial annual income stream drawn from the collective contributions of members — routed through the charitable structures of the very organisation he leads.
The standard media description of Bruce Hales as a "Sydney-based accountant" rather understates what the full picture suggests. His practice audits three businesses — one of which reported $534 million in revenue in a single year while doing so. His family's companies worked in parallel with one of those audit clients during the pandemic and, on our analysis, made a larger profit from that arrangement than the audit client itself. And his income appears to be substantially supplemented by monthly grants from the charitable structures of the PBCC, funded by the very members whose lives he governs.