‘Haven’t been at Hillsong’ — Morrison tells his biggest lie of all to avoid Houston fallout

Desperate to avoid the toxic fallout from the resignation of his friend and mentor Brian Houston from Hillsong, Scott Morrison has told an astonishing lie today, claiming he hasn’t been to Hillsong for “15 years” when pressed on the scandal by journalists.

“I haven’t been at Hillsong now for over, about 15 years, I go to a local church,” Morrison said this morning, professing himself “disappointed and shocked to hear the news”.

But his efforts to dissociate himself from Hillsong are profoundly at odds with his enthusiastic support for Houston and Hillsong in recent years, as Crikey’s David Hardaker has documented.

Morrison’s most recent and high-profile visit to Hillsong was in July 2019 when the prime minister — triumphant from his surprise election win — and his wife joined tens of thousands of Hillsong worshippers onstage for the corporation’s annual conference (an event Morrison regularly attends) to discuss his faith and religious freedom. Morrison “prayed for Australia” at the conference.

Morrison was interviewed on stage — interrupted by wild cheering and applause from Hillsong devotees — by none other than Brian Houston himself.

Indeed, that conference attended by Morrison — held at Homebush in Sydney — was the occasion when Houston (affected, he claims, by alcohol and anti-anxiety medication) entered the hotel room of a woman and didn’t leave for 40 minutes.

Morrison has a history of lying when under political pressure, with many of his scores of documented lies coming in moments of stress — for example: lying that he’d told Anthony Albanese he was going to Hawaii, lying about his claim that the vaccine rollout “wasn’t a race”, and lying about harassment claims within Sky News when under pressure in relation to workplace issues in Parliament House.

The disgrace of his friend and mentor Brian Houston, a relationship both Morrison and Hillsong were once happy to promote, is another moment of political pressure that has once again prompted a prime ministerial lie — the most blatant one of all.