Yet, as the evidence now shows, Morrison has been anything but a conventional politician and, despite his protests, growing breadcrumbs demonstrate that he may have made policy decisions that reflected his religious commitment staff.
The clearest example is the ill-fated attempt to introduce a religious discrimination bill in the final days of his government. Morrison publicly committed, while sharing a stage at Hillsong with Brian Houston in 2019, to implementing such legislation. Morrison’s insistence on going ahead with an all-night session has divided the government, with five dissidents crossing the floor. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg would later note that the government had shown itself to be “largely out of step with the public” by pursuing the bill just weeks before the 2022 election.
The push for an all-night sitting of Parliament to pass the bill “gives you an idea of how the show was run”, he later told the ABC.
Newly elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison on stage before a Hillsong congregation in 2019, where he pledged to enforce religious discrimination laws.
Morrison briefly pushed Australia to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in line with hardline Christian apocalyptic doctrine (and supported by the Trump administration). He promised a multi-million dollar grant to a Pentecostal rehabilitation center in Perth, which was later closed after allegations of harsh religious treatment, such as the casting out of demons. He supported the preselection of a Pentecostal pastor with no political experience to represent the party in the 2022 elections. In 2019, he arranged to take the US Secretary of State and fellow Pentecostal Christian, Mike Pompeo, on a visit to his local Pentecostal church in the Shire. (Morrison takes on an advisory role alongside Pompeo at a U.S.-based venture capital firm that advises on AUKUS investments.)
Like the ABC Nemesis As a documentary series has shown, even those who worked most closely with Morrison were blindsided by the revelations that emerged in the months after the Coalition lost office in 2022 that Scott Morrison had sworn in in five ministries. Two ministers, Greg Hunt (Health) and Keith Pitt (Industry Science Energy Resources) were aware of Morrison’s decision, although it was not made public at the time. The others found out later. Former interior minister Karen Andrews, whose ministry Morrison secretly assumed, told the ABC that Morrison had “trashed” what the Liberal Party stood for.
Brian Houston’s prosperity message appealed to the same demographically savvy campaigners that Morrison was pursuing.Credit: Hillsong Church/Facebook
While Morrison’s colleagues remain perplexed – and the political media remains perplexed – it is worth recalling the findings of an official inquiry into the saga which concluded in substance that Morrison’s actions undermined public confidence in government .
The inquiry, led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell, failed to find a rational explanation for Morrison’s shocking actions. But what remains is the most troubling scenario of all: Australia had a Prime Minister who secretly attacked the fundamental values of our system of government. Should we just shrug our shoulders at this?
Ultimately, it may take the advice of a religious insider – rather than a secular expert – to explain Morrison’s actions.
Reverend Tim Costello, the leading Baptist minister based in Melbourne, firmly believes that Morrison’s secret power grab can only be explained through the prism of religious belief – and specifically Morrison’s vision. of himself as a leader anointed by God, in accordance with the Pentecostal Christian Leadership Model.
Tim Costello says the pentacostal leadership style may shed some light on Scott Morrison’s premiership.
“The Pentecostal model is that God has blessed me and my decisions,” he explains. “The theology is that God anoints the leader, that leader gives the vision and, from a governance perspective, the people must be faithful to that vision. »
The idea of the God-anointed leader has been fundamental in the governance of many Pentecostal churches in Australia, Hillsong being the most prominent. According to its rules, all the power resided in the senior pastor, Brian Houston, who was virtually indisputable.
As Costello explains, the model differs from the Baptist model where decisions are made by church congregations. This made the decision-making process slower and more difficult. “You don’t grow as fast, but you have checks and balances,” he says.
In contrast, the Pentecostal model of the anointed leader, to whom others are loyal, worked well – unless and until the leader had “errors of judgment or flaws of character.”
Tim Costello’s argument also applies to Scott Morrison (the self-proclaimed “bulldozer”) and Brian Houston, who both suddenly fell from great heights within weeks of each other in 2022.
In March of that year, the all-powerful global pastor was kicked out of the church he had started and ran as his own fiefdom after a series of errors in judgment, including spending 40 minutes alone in a bedroom. hotel with a Hillsong supporter. Houston attributed his moral fall to a cocktail of alcohol and anti-anxiety medication, although the full story has never been revealed of what, if anything, happened that night.
A few weeks later, in May, Morrison was also gone, after a comprehensive election defeat.
Both played a central role in strengthening the influence of Pentecostalism. In Federal Parliament, Morrison promoted his fellow believer, Stuart Robert, to his inner circle of advisers.
Morrison and Houston also faced similar accusations, of being paternalistic in their relationships with women and of enabling men’s influence over their own image.
So what about the argument that linking Morrison’s government to his religion crosses an ethical line? Is there a lesson to be learned from the general reluctance to ask the question?
“I understand the reluctance because I believe that religious freedom demands respect, even if the secular world doesn’t understand it or thinks it’s crazy,” says Costello, who has spent his life straddling secular worlds. and religious. “But I think when it comes to the five ministries, despite the phone books talking about it, no one has really understood this model of leadership and that the so-called favor of God is on this leader. The authority that comes with that and the expectation of real loyalty to truly align yourself with the vision of the leader, as the entire Church does. It’s really Brian Houston and Hillsong.
“That explanation is I think it doesn’t explain all of Scott Morrison, but I think it explains a lot of the five ministries.”
Morrison’s office was contacted for comment but did not respond.
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Detached from the post of prime minister, Morrison became increasingly less restrained in displaying his Pentecostal beliefs. In a sermon at Margaret Court Pentecostal Church in Perth, the former prime minister affirmed the primacy of God over government.
The next one in preparation is a book, Plans for your good: a prime minister’s testimony to the faithfulness of God. To be published in May, it promises a ministerial reflection like no other.
It marks the fuller exit of a man who inhabits the world of miracles and wonders – and who may never be understood using conventional means of secular inquiry.
David Hardaker is Senior Story Producer at Channel Nine. Under investigation with Liz Hayes and the author of Mine is the Kingdom: The Rise and Fall of Brian Houston and the Hillsong Church (Allen and Unwin, $34.99).
