Hillsong safe for children abuse commission told

AUSTRALIA: The head of the global Hillsong Church says it has done everything it can to ensure it is safe for children.

Hillsong founder and senior pastor Brian Houston says new child protection policies and procedures have been rolled out across the church, including setting up a safe church office.

‘‘We have really I think done everything we can to set the framework within the culture of our whole church where everybody, especially obviously those in any form of leadership, understand the processes/procedures that would be rolled out,’’ Houston told the child abuse royal commission.

‘‘We have been very very supportive of the goal to make sure our church is as safe a church as it could possibly be.’’

The Australian Christian Churches, which is Australia’s largest Pentecostal movement, and affiliate Hillsong Church, have strengthened their child protection policies since the royal commission criticised their handling of abuse complaints.

The commission found Houston had a conflict of interest in 1999 and 2000 in assuming responsibility for dealing with abuse allegations against his father Frank Houston because he was both the Assemblies of God in Australia national president and the son of the alleged perpetrator.

It also said Houston and the executives of the Assemblies of God in Australia – as the Australian Christian Churches was known until 2007 – failed to tell police about the allegations.

Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian said the church has implemented a strong conflict of interest procedure.

Both Hillsong and the Australian Christian Churches require mandatory reporting of child abuse, the inquiry heard yesterday.

Eight reports of child-related sexual assault were made to an independent hotline for the Australian Christian Churches in one quarter of 2016, but the commission heard five related to family members. – AAP