Hillsong ‘committed fraud, evaded tax’: Andrew Wilkie
Hillsong founder Brian Houston and his family enjoyed lavish overseas holidays, parliament has been told, as MP Andrew Wilkie claimed the church hid more than $80m a year from the ATO.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston and his family went on wild shopping sprees at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York and enjoyed lavish overseas holidays, including a $150,000 three-day trip to Cancun in Mexico while Australia was in lockdown during the pandemic, federal parliament has been told.
Hillsong hid more than $80m a year from the Australian Tax Office, according to independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who on Thursday tabled a trove of thousands of documents exposing what he described as fraud and criminality by the church.
The documents provide an insight into the extravagant lifestyles of those running the church and complex financial structures that sustain it.
Hillsong has boasted that the media has “never been able to successfully accuse us of false dealing with finance because we do the right thing always.”
But the tabled documents reveal that virtually every aspect of Brian and Bobbie Houston’s lives are funded by Hillsong, including thousands of dollars in makeup for Bobbie, life insurance, personal security and “excessive costs for Bobbie to have her executive assistant Laurie Scott travel with her”. Among their Hillsong-paid purchases were a $6500 Cartier watch for Bobbie, a $2500 Louis Vuitton luggage set and $16,000 for custom skateboards.
Mr Wilkie said a whistleblower provided him with financial records and board papers that showed Mr Houston spent at least $179,000 on private jets in a three-month period.
Mr Wilkie told parliament the papers show Mr Houston was “treating private jets like Ubers, again with church money”.
Cash gifts of up to $30,000 were made to Hillsong board members, “some of whom allegedly helped cover up sexual abuse carried out by Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s father,” Mr Wilkie said.
Mr Houston is fighting allegations he concealed his father’s sexual abuse of a then-seven-year-old boy more than 50 years ago, telling a court in December he had “no doubt” Frank Houston was a “serial paedophile” but defending the golden handshake the church gave his father.
One document tabled by Mr Wilkie says criminal charges may be warranted “as Hillsong may have engaged in illegal conduct by potentially paying for the silence of the board members involved in helping Brian Houston cover up his father’s sexual abuse of minors”. “Over time, there may have been other ‘hush money’ payments made to the people who investigated Brian Houston’s 2019 sexual misconduct at the Pullman hotel,” it says.
In March last year, Hillsong Church released a report following an internal investigation that alleged Mr Houston had sent “inappropriate” texts to a female staffer and burst in on a woman in her hotel room. He resigned as head of the church shortly after.
The documents show how Hillsong operates in Australia through charities that attract tax breaks on the church’s income, which, according to documents tabled, amounted to $159m in 2021, with total assets of $241m.
Mr Wilkie said when documents were offered to the Australian Tax Office, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) under whistleblower legislation, “not one of those agencies acted”.
“That is a failure of regulatory oversight every bit as alarming as Hillsong’s criminality,” he said.
In July 2021, Brian and Bobbie Houston posted on Instagram that they had travelled to Mexico while Australia was in lockdown to speak at Hillsong’s Mexico campus.
What was not disclosed was that immediately prior to attending the campus, they travelled to a luxury resort in Cancun, Mexico along with their sons, Joel and Ben, and at least five friends for a “Global Strategy Retreat”, with all expenses paid by Hillsong at a cost close to $100,000.
When they returned to Australia, Hillsong paid an extra $5389 to have their hotel quarantine room upgraded, on top of the mandatory fee of $4016.
“In one three-month period, Brian Houston’s trips cost $55,000, $52,000, $30,000, $22,000 and $20,000,” Mr Wilkie told parliament. “Meanwhile, the new head of Hillsong, Phil Dooley, has told churchgoers he only flies economy, but these documents show him clocking up $58,000 in business-class flights for him and his daughter to Guatemala, $42,000 in business-class flights to Mexico and $32,000 in business-class flights from Capetown to Sydney via the US.”
Hillsong doesn’t have a church in Guatemala.
“Hillsong followers believe the money they put in the poor box goes to the poor, but these documents show how that money is used to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian,” Mr Wilkie said.
Brian and Bobbie have their own personal charities, most recently Shiloh Ministries Australia and Shiloh Ministries USA, which exist for their own private benefit but are managed by staff paid for by Hillsong, the documents say.
Fifty per cent of Hillsong pastors’ salaries are tax exempt as a perk provided to religious practitioners in Australia.
Many of the celebrity songwriters, singers and musicians who produce Hillsong’s lucrative music are not employed as musicians but as “music pastors”, meaning they, too, enjoy the tax breaks while earning hundreds of thousands in music royalties.
One music pastor earns a $68,299 salary, of which $41,737 is tax-free, but also made $1.4m in music royalties in just one year from writing hit worship songs. These tax breaks are also enjoyed by “pastors” who head the Film and TV, Projects, Communications and other departments, according to the documents.
“Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of all of the above excessive spending and private benefit is that Hillsong promotes child sponsorship organisation Compassion International at its conferences and workshop tours,” the tabled documents say.
Hillsong charges the charity, which helps children living in poverty, $1m a year for being its child sponsorship partner, according to the documents.
Hillsong’s travel, green room, gift and honorarium expenditure is so extreme that even with the $1m from Compassion, the church still records a loss in its conference budget.
The whistleblower disclosure tabled by Mr Wilkie identifies 22 corporate entities in Australia related to Hillsong and claims that officials from the Hillsong group have engaged in fraud and improperly used their positions to gain personal advantage for themselves, their families and friends.
The document names 24 company secretaries, directors and trustees alleged to have perpetrated the misconduct, including Brian Houston and Mr Dooley.
The disclosure says Australian legislation allows “Basic Religious Charities” to operate under a “veil of secrecy” because they do not have to make their financials visible to the public or the ACNC.
A substantial amount of Hillsong’s assets are held in property entities like the Hills Christian Life Centre that do not earn income and are therefore deemed “small charities” which do not have to report their financials.
Hillsong was founded in 1983 at Baulkham Hills, Sydney, and now also has a presence in the US, Europe, Latin America and Africa. It claims to have a global following of more than 150,000, though many supporters have left in the wake of allegations about Mr Houston’s behaviour with women and unresolved criminal charges that he concealed his father’s historic child sex abuse.
Mr Houston claims to have been under the influence of sleeping pills when he sent the texts, and in a 2019 incident he claims to have become “disoriented” after having alcohol and anti-anxiety medication, leading him to knock on the door of a woman’s hotel room. Brian and Bobby Houston sold their luxury home in Glenhaven, in Sydney’s Hills District, last November for more than $4m.
In a statement, Hillsong said it had been misrepresented by Mr Wilkie, who had made claims that were “out of context” and relating to an ongoing legal case involving an employee.
“These allegations, made under parliamentary privilege, are in many respects wrong and it is disappointing he made no effort to contact us first,” the church said in a statement.
Hillsong said it was unable to speak publicly about matters before a court. “Hillsong has sought independent legal and accounting advice on these matters since the employee involved in the legal case made these claims, and we believe that we have complied with all legal and compliance requirements. We are fully co-operating with regulatory authorities as part of their enquiries,” the statement said.
“Hillsong Church has been open and transparent with our congregation about past governance failures, and over the past 12 months we have engaged independent, professional assistance to overhaul our governance and accountability procedures.”
The statement said the figures quoted by Mr Wilkie for flights by Mr Dooley were “misrepresented”.
“Part of these fares are being paid by him personally and a large portion was reimbursed by a church Pastor Phil visited that is unrelated to Hillsong. Hillsong is a global church and it is the role of our global senior pastor to visit Hillsong churches around the world,” it said.
“Hillsong is a different church now than we were 12 months ago, and we are under new pastoral and board leadership.”
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