In Australia, a close family friend of Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, appears to be a QAnon enthusiast—and that man's wife is on the prime minister's staff.
QAnon is the far-right conspiracy theory found on the anonymous imageboard 4chan that details a secret plot by a supposed "deep state" against U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters.
Often incongruous and always evidence-free, QAnon claims that Donald Trump is leading the fight against forces hiding Satanic pedophile rings, and that a shadowy figure named Q leaves clues for his followers to decipher ad infinitum on internet forums.
One of the bigger QAnon followers in Australia tweets under the handle @BurnedSpy34. He has over 21,000 Twitter followers and tweets QAnon-related thoughts and memes, plus original posts about consciousness. Like many QAnon followers, his political theories are bizarre, sometimes veering into sheer fantasy.
The Guardian learned the identity of BurnedSpy and discovered his wife works on the Australian prime minister's staff. She has apparently known Jenny Morrison for many years and they are lifelong friends.
"BurnedSpy's wife works in a publicly funded position but not in any policy or advisory capacity. There is no evidence she shares her husband's views," writes The Guardian.
BurnedSpy has linked Alexander Downer, the Australian blue blood accused of being an anti-Trump spy by QAnon, with a local 1996 child abuse inquiry to Downer's role in the starting of the Russian interference investigation.
He has also pushed the theory that Julie Bishop, former Australian foreign affairs minister, was connected to the same child abuse conspiracy because she was wearing red shoes.
"If you want to do your research into the US context, the red shoes are purported to be very much a pedophilia shout out," he told The Guardian. "And there are some extremely odd photos of large groups of men in suits wearing red shoes, many of whom are promoting pedophilia."
QAnon has supplied no evidence showing Bishop is connected to a pedophilic conspiracy.
While BurnedSpy claims his friendship with the Morrisons is unrelated to his political conspiracy theory-laden Twitter account, a source close to his family spoke of their concerns about his unusual beliefs. They worry he is open to more manipulation and influence.
There's no evidence that BurnedSpy or his wife have undue influence over the prime minister, but the FBI has previously warned that QAnon could act as a potential instigator for "domestic extremists".
