Hillsong College receives $2.2m government grant despite staff cuts

Despite slashing staff, Hillsong College revenue hit a whopping $15.7 million during the 2020 pandemic thanks to taxpayer grants, fees and donations.

Hillsong College raked in $15.7 million in taxpayer grants, fees and donations to continue to train worship pastors in bible studies during the Covid pandemic.

The college for the mega church kept its Christian leadership, music and the bible training programs active in its main Sydney campuses, thanks to a $2,195,850 Government cash injection, $1.4 million in donations and $12 million in revenue from services in the year ending December 2020.

The large training college, which receives tax breaks as a religious charity, charges worshippers pursuing a master of theology $20,000-a-year, $15,000 a year for a Bachelor of Theology and aspiring pastors $10,000 a year for a vocational diploma.

Hillsong College president and church founder Brian Houston helped set up the training college more than 30 years ago. Picture: John Grainger

Hillsong College Ltd logged a gross income of $15,783,493 for the charity that has main campuses in Sydney’s Norwest and Waterloo and around NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the US.

According to financial statements lodged with the Government’s Australian Charities and not-for-Profit Commission last week, the college charity, which employs for the 60 full time and 32 part-time employees in Australia, spent $7 million on staff costs — comparable to the previous year, despite cutting full time staff numbers by 33.33 per cent to 60 in 2020.

Brian and Bobbie Houston found the Hillsong church in 1983.

It also ploughed $8 million on unspecified “other” expenses leaving $654,117 in college coffers.

The college did not receive any government funding in 2019 but netted $2 million in donations and $15 million in revenue from goods and services reporting a gross income of $17 million.

Its “other” expenses totalled $9.8 million leaving $32,868 in the college bank.

Pre Covid Hillsong College Ltd employed 91 full time staff in 2019 before slashing staff numbers to 60 last year.

In 2019 the Evangelical church exploded in popularity netting an incredible $96 million in tax-free revenue from its 38,300-strong Australian flock.

Former Hillsong College student Yolandi Boschtold paid $4,500 a term for Bible college including accommodation to share a room with four other students and left feeling “traumatised” Picture: Richard Dobson

Former Hillsong College attendee Yolandi Bosch joined the Sydney church in 2012 paying $4,500 a term for Bible college including accommodation to share a room with four other students.

She maintains she was forced to work 20-hour days cleaning toilets at Sydney conferences, ordered to dye her hair blonde to conform and fend off suggestive massages from a pastor before she was asked to leave the church.

“The time I spent there still leaves me feeling traumatised and suffering flashbacks, I was subjected to humiliating X Factor-style singing auditions which graded students into performance-related worship teams,” she said.

“When I complained amid pressure to adhere to the church’s strict conservative rules, I was ordered to leave and escorted off the Sydney Bella Vista premises by a church official.

“At these X Factor style singing auditions, you’re judged on how you look, if you’re chubby, your clothing, if you’re good looking, confident,” Mrs Bosch said.

In 2018 Hillsong, which began its Australian roots in Baulkham Hills in the eighties, raised $1.3 million less in donations compared to 2019 — but its popularity among 20-34 year olds saw its flock shell out a total $8,839,565 to attend conferences in 2019.

Founded by Brian and his wife Bobbie Houston in 1983, Hillsong Church estimates the number of people filing through its doors increases by about 6,000 per year and 6 million new visits to the website.

Hillsong declined to respond to questions sent to the organisation yesterday.