The baptism ceremony usually involves a Mormon proxy for the deceased being immersed in water while the dead person's name is read out. They believe the spirit of the dead should have a choice about whether to accept Mormon baptism in the afterlife. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormon church, is a small but increasingly influential religion in Australia. In June, it was revealed nearly 13 per cent of delegates elected to the Victorian Liberals’ administrative bodies are Mormons – compared to the 0.3 per cent of Australians who are. Salt Lake City-based researcher Helen Radkey, a former Mormon, has provided research to Fairfax Media about prominent Australians who have been baptised.

They include former prime ministers Malcolm Fraser, Joe Lyons, John Curtin, Alfred Deakin and Robert Menzies. Mormon records wrongly list Bob Hawke as having died; the church also incorrectly baptised Malcolm Fraser before he had died. Mormon records wrongly list Bob Hawke as having died, but not yet baptised, while Fraser was incorrectly baptised before he had even died, Mormon records show. Loading Other prominent Australians to be baptised include Don Bradman, Ned Kelly, Indigenous Tasmanian woman Truganini and Sir Keith Murdoch.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix was also baptised as a Mormon in the 1980s while Australia’s first Indigenous federal parliamentarian, Neville Bonner, was baptised in Mexico in 2010. The baptisms are linked to the controversial practice of “worthiness interviews’’. Tasmanian indigenous woman Truganini is among those selected by Mormons for the proxy baptism ceremony. Credit: A Fairfax Media investigation in May found Australian children as young as 12 being asked explicit questions about their sexual thoughts by adult male Mormon religious figures. That invasive questioning — known as worthiness interviews — is part of an initiation process that allows young people to enter Mormon temples and to later perform proxy baptisms.

The Australian-born Ms Radkey has been researching the baptisms for decades. “The public has a right to know what is happening in Mormon temples because an untold number of Mormons are misusing public genealogical information,’’ she said. A descendant of bushranger Ned Kelly, Joanne Griffiths, decried the baptism of her famous ancestor who was of Irish Catholic background. “Our family story has been a free-for-all,’’ Ms Griffiths said. “What they forget is that the grandchildren of Ned’s sister are still alive, it’s not that distant. It’s very disrespectful to not consider our culture.’’

Ms Griffiths said much of her family still live around north-east Victoria, where Ned lived, and many of them were either Catholic or respected that religious tradition. “We can say he (Ned) was Catholic. We know what religion he was. If he wanted to be a Mormon he would have been.’’ Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chief executive Heather Sculthorpe said baptising Truganini, who died in 1876, was a “ridiculous notion’’. She was “not a Mormon before or after death’’. A spokesman for the church in Australia said the work is an act of “love’’ and that according to church doctrine people can choose to accept or reject Mormon baptism in the afterlife. “Members believe that they can offer the blessings of salvation to their ancestors through vicarious work performed in temples, including baptism and marriage.

Australian cricketer Don Bradman was among those given the option of "the blessing of salvation" in the afterlife. “This is done as a member researches and identifies their ancestors and then enters the temple to serve as proxy on behalf of their deceased relatives.’’ The spokesman said in 2012 church members were told they should only perform baptisms and other “ordinances’’ on relatives. There was significant policy and technological safeguards now in place to stop ‘’inappropriate performance of temple work’’. A Mormon, who has done baptisms for the dead, said the practice involved being dressed in white and fully immersed in water as the names of those being baptised would be read out. ‘‘The practice itself is quite sweet,’’ the Mormon said.

Historian Matthew Bowman, from Henderson State University in Arkansas, said baptisms for the dead started in 1841, just 11 years after the church was established. “(It was) part of a broader set of theological and ritual innovations made by Mormon founder Joseph Smith, all of which were designed to bind the human family together,’’ he said. Former Reuters religion editor Tom Heneghan, who has reported previously on the baptisms, said it had troubled him after he found out from his sister that his late father had been baptised. “She was offended because he (their late father) was a proud lifelong Catholic, with several priests in his family, and asked what this meant,’’ Mr Heneghan said. Mr Heneghan said the Mormons he had met had been “invariably’’ friendly and decent but the practice of baptising “complete strangers by the thousands without their consent is not’’.

“It usurps the memory of the innocent dead and often offends that person's relatives. It certainly angered my family when we found out our father had been included on these lists,’’ he said. Do you know more? Contact us securely via Journotips Follow Ben Schneiders on Facebook