Hillsong launches whistleblower complaints system amid tax office probe

The megachurch is making a major change to its complaints process amid a tax office investigation into whistleblower documents that was examined in Faith on Trial podcast.

Christian megachurch Hillsong has hired a company in Melbourne’s northern suburbs to handle its whistleblower complaints following a string of scandals.

The global Christian church, which has been accused of financial fraud and interrogating young female students about their sex lives, revealed details of its new process in a board update.

It comes as founder Brian Houston, who quit the church following an internal investigation, plans to start a new church.

“Bobbie and I are starting a weekly online ministry and church in 2024. I’m excited about building this new community,” Mr Houston said in a post on X.

Mr Houston’s return to public ministry comes after independent Federal MP Andrew Wilkie tabled in federal parliament more than 15,000 internal Hillsong documents earlier this year.

The whistleblower documents revealed the church used “private jets like Ubers and went on spending sprees that would embarrass a Kardashian”, parliament heard.

Brian Houston. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Simon Bullard

The documents sparked an Australian Taxation Office investigation, which is ongoing, and prompted the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to reveal it too had an open inquiry into the church’s finances.

The document drop came two weeks after the launch of the first episode of a six-month podcast investigation, Faith On Trial, which exposed serious questions about the church’s interrogations of the sex lives of young female members.

The podcast has had almost two million downloads.

Now, Hillsong’s latest Australian Board quarterly report details how the church was changing the way it handled whistleblower complaints.

The church now encourages people to make a whistleblower complaint through Stopline, a company based in Thomastown in Melbourne’s north.

The company’s website says: “Stopline is proudly an Australian owned and operated business.

“We were established in 2001 with the mission of assisting organisations in protecting their assets, people and reputation.”

Stopline offers a whistleblower hotline and private investigation service to look into complaints.

Andrew Wilkie on the day he tabled the Hillsong documents. Picture: NCA NewsWire

However, Hillsong said in its report that all complaints were received by “Safe Church” – “a separate department within our church who can report directly to the global board when required.”

The church has also set up a complaints process for the global senior pastor, but details of how to make a complaint were not detailed in the board update.

Hillsong founder Brian Houston resigned from the church in March 2022 following an investigation by the church into a text message he sent to a female church goer.

He was also questioned about how he ended up in the hotel room of a separate female churchgoer following a Hillsong conference in 2019.

Mr Houston blamed alcohol and anxiety medication for the incident.

The missing 40 minutes that Mr Houston spent in the wrong hotel room in Sydney’s Olympic Park precinct is investigated at length in the Faith On Trial podcast.

Alyssa Harper, former Hillsong member. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Episode 5 of the podcast retraces Mr Houston’s steps as it seeks to uncover what really happened in that hotel room.

The podcast also spoke to dozens of women who shared their stories about being forced to reveal intimate details of their sex lives.

Those who had revealed they have had sex, including some who had been sexually abused, were allegedly deemed unfit to work with children.

Women were also directly asked whether they masturbated, Alyssa Harper told the podcast.

The stories were detailed in episode seven, Submit, which also revealed women were allegedly taught to submit to their husbands for sex even if they did not want to.

LISTEN TO THE FAITH ON TRIAL PODCAST

The podcast also deals throughout the series with Mr Houston’s criminal trial over allegations he covered up child sex abuse committed by his own father, Frank Houston, who was also a pastor.

Episode eight, The Verdict, follows Mr Houston into the courtroom where he hears that a magistrate has found him not guilty of a cover up.

Mr Houston, who was caught drink driving in California with a blood alcohol reading of 0.23 – almost five times Australia’s legal limit – has been based in the United States.

However, he has been spending time in Australia, preaching in Port Lincoln, South Australia in late November.

“Bobbie and I are in Australia for most of the summer,” he posted on Instagram.

To hear more, head to www.faithontrial.com.au

A Hillsong leader claimed a pool as a tax deduction in the United States, according to documents tabled in parliament.