A legal defence filed by Hillsong Church against whistleblower Natalie Moses’ claim paints an extraordinary picture of an organisation in damage control — one determined to find the culprit who leaked a damaging internal report to Crikey on a rape allegedly committed by a high profile pastor.
The Federal Court filing reveals that the final straw for Hillsong was Crikey’s publication of a report detailing credible allegations of rape made against a New York pastor by a junior female staff member. Crikey’s report was based on the findings of an investigation by US lawyers appointed by Hillsong. The law firm concluded it was “likely” the pastor would have been convicted had the allegations gone to court.
The highly confidential report — provided to Hillsong’s global board — pointed the finger at members of Hillsong’s leadership, including Australian figures. It found that “no one at any time ever probed for more information to try to discern how one of the most powerful men in the New York church could have found himself in a sexual relationship with a young, vulnerable junior staff member”, despite the (married) pastor’s earlier transgressions being known to some board members.
Crikey’s report caused huge ructions in the US, where senior pastors at churches operating under the Hillsong brand were angry about being kept in the dark on a series of sex scandals involving high profile US pastors close to the Houston family. None had been given access to the investigation leaked to Crikey.
Uncovering the leaker
Hillsong’s Federal Court filing details how the megachurch was determined to hunt down the alleged leaker. It ultimately blamed Moses, a staffer who had been raising questions about Hillsong’s governance — in particular what she considered to be questionable movements of money between Hillsong entities in Australia and overseas.
Moses had been assigned to look into the financial arrangements as the charities regulator — the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) — began an investigation into Hillsong’s charitable entities, including highly secretive religious charities known as BRCs (basic religious charity).
Moses has since brought an action against Hillsong claiming she was victimised and treated unfairly by church management after making her governance concerns known.
Hillsong’s federal filing outlined the chain of events that led to Moses being suspended from duty in mid- June.
“In around late March 2022”, Hillsong had “commenced a practice of routinely and periodically” reviewing who had accessed computer software that stored Hillsong’s board documents.
The filing said that Hillsong began its monitoring in response to “a media article published on or around 23 March by online media publisher [sic]” that referred to a “confidential document that was stored on Hillsong’s IT system and not available in the public domain”.
The timing of Hillsong’s monitoring coincides with a series of leaks to Crikey that eventually led to the emergence of some of the church’s most closely held secrets — much to the irritation of its leadership, which has been accustomed to closely managing its public image.
Unholy trangressions
From March 16, we contacted senior Hillsong figures for comment on information provided by our sources that Hillsong founder Brian Houston had been allegedly involved in sexual transgressions with two women and that these had been covered up, with allegations that the women had been paid hush money.
Within 48 hours, on March 18, Hillsong held an emergency all staff meeting in which details were given of Houston’s transgressions, including that he had turned up drunk at the hotel room of a female Hillsong supporter after having apparently lost the key to his own hotel room.
Crikey’s sources provided us with a complete audio recording of the internal staff meeting. We published a report detailing Houston’s behaviour straight after the meeting was finished and hours before the church put out its version.
On March 23, we published our report detailing the alleged rape of a junior Hillsong staffer in New York. That report was a bridge too far for Hillsong’s senior managers — an all-male group close to Houston that has run the Hillsong show for years.
Hillsong’s Federal Court filing reveals that by June this year suspicions began to firm about the identity of the leaker. The church ramped up its internal investigation, coincidentally at the very time it was vowing publicly that there would be “no more secrets”.
‘Unhappy and disaffected’
According to the Federal Court filing, two senior Hillsong men became concerned about adverse comments that had been made about their performance during a “360-degree” assessment. (The assessments were being conducted as part of the new post-Houston era of openness.)
One of them — Hillsong’s chief financial officer Peter Ridley — allegedly concluded that Moses was “unhappy and disaffected in her employment” and was “therefore a person who possibly may have accessed and provided confidential information to an external media publisher”.
According to Hillsong’s defence, the church’s senior leadership team concluded that Moses was responsible for the negative comments (made anonymously) about the managers. After a fuller IT investigation authorised by Hillsong’s long-serving head, George Aghajanian, the five-man group of senior managers concluded “it was possible” that Moses “could have been providing information to media reporters”.
This was based on a finding that Moses had downloaded “a significant number of documents and files” including documents that contained “confidential and sensitive information” that “may not be connected” with her role.
By June 14 — a week into Hillsong’s promised new era of openness — Moses’ access to Hillsong’s computers and shared files was cut. She was soon suspended, amid threats from Hillsong that it would refer the case to the NSW Police.
In Moses’ statement of claim to the Federal Court in August — reported by Crikey — she said she had downloaded confidential work files (alleged by Hillsong to number more than 40,000) to enable her to perform the “main aspect” of her job.
Hillsong denies Moses’ allegations
Hillsong’s Federal Court filing denies Moses’ central allegations.
They include that a number of directors of Hillsong Church were receiving substantial sums of money in cash as honorariums for speaking engagements conducted in their roles as pastors for Hillsong, and that significant gifts were made to directors of Hillsong companies and their families and friends.
Moses’s statement of claim — denied by Hillsong — painted a picture of favouritism and cronyism, with those clustered around Houston potentially receiving large sums of money and “designer gifts” with little or no transparency.
Hillsong denied Moses’ allegations that when she revealed her findings to Hillsong’s senior ranks she was told to “come up with a story” that would be acceptable to investigators from the ACNC.
Hillsong also denies allegations that it “fraudulently” claimed funds to renovate Festival Hall (purchased for more than $23 million by Hillsong) were tax deductible. Hillsong Church has further denied accusations that it intentionally deceived the Australian charities regulator about its financial records and that it had made international money transfers in contravention of charities governance laws.
Moses’ lawyers, Maurice Blackburn, declined to comment on the Hillsong filing.
The matter is due to return to the Federal Court in February.
If you have information you wish to share you can email David Hardaker at dhardaker@protonmail.com.
