The Guardian 8 March, 2006
Hillsong:
no better than a "mission manager"
The charitable arm of the Hillsong church was stripped of a $414,479 Federal grant after it falsely claimed the support of a western Sydney Aboriginal group to win the money.
But far from showing contrition for its actions the Pentecostal church has gone on the attack claiming the Riverstone Aboriginal Community Association (RACA) is part of a "witch-hunt".
Indigenous Business Australia (IBA) dropped Hillsong Emerge as a partner in a million dollar micro credit scheme as a result of the revelations.
RACA spokeswoman Vilma Ryan* said Hillsong was no better than a "mission manager".
The scandal proved the church could not be trusted to work with indigenous communities, she said.
"We call on Hillsong to come clean", Ms Ryan said.
"Aboriginal people have had a long history of dealings with church-based groups.
"Many have recently apologised for their treatment of our people."
"We are hopeful we can move past the harmful approach of the days of the government-appointed mission manager.
"The Federal Government needs to explain why it never checked up on statements made in the Hillsong application that it approved".
Prime Minister John Howard announced the National Community Crime Prevention Program funding in August last year, hailing the "partnership" as evidence of the success of the shared responsibility approach to Aboriginal service delivery.
"All applications were carefully considered by the Advisory Group for the Greater Western Sydney region", Mr Howard said at the Blacktown launch of the project.
But the Prime Minister was contradicted by evidence given to February’s Senate Estimates Committee.
Attorney-General’s Department Assistant Secretary Dr Dianne Heriot told the hearing the Department did not bother to check whether the elders named in the application supported the project.
But Dr Heriot said other checks were undertaken on the eligibility of the organisation, the nature of the project, local need, previous applications for government funding and financial management.
Dr Heriot claimed to only become aware of concerns about the grant from "local gossip".
Hillsong then stalled on two meetings with the Department, in December and January, to explain why RACA claimed to have no knowledge of the grant proposal.
At a hastily convened meting Hillsong Chief Executive, Leigh Coleman, hand wrote a letter offering RACA $280,000 "in return for its silence" over the faked letters of support.
Hillsong Emerge first applied for a grant of almost $500,000 with the support of (RACA) but withdrew the application and submitted a second application.
But the second grant application used letters of support and ideas from RACA without the Indigenous body’s permission.
"Hillsong has met all the objectives of the projects it has received funding for", Mr Coleman said.
"We have always met the reporting and governance criteria outlined by the government.
"We believe we have become a scapegoat in a political game.
"A number of politicians and government officials have come out in our defence".
Koori Mail, March 1, 2006
Vilma Ryan’s* story
I felt as though I let this white man, Leigh Coleman, into our community and he dudded us, but he did it through me.
I felt as though I let this community down.
He came here and he told me what he was about and he asked me what my story was.
So I told him what happened. My husband left me and I lost a daughter to drugs.
And then I asked him, "what’s behind you?
"Not the church thing, yourself."
He told me he was a "druggie and a dealer". He’s saying that, and with my daughter and that, I was bawling.
I was asking him, "where were you dealing and where were you using" and he was saying down at the Cross, probably at the same time as my daughter.
Him and his wife they took me to dinner, along with eight or so Aboriginal people from the community.
They took us over to their rally with all of their young people jumping up and down and carrying on.
They were so-called Christians and we all believed them.
The aim of the money was to set up an Aboriginal centre. We wanted to get people from all walks of life and teach them literacy, numeracy and all the things they needed to learn. To make the people feel good about themselves, raise their self-esteem and confidence.
I don’t believe the colleges, the schools of the TAFE is doing that.
If we had the monopoly on it at our centre we would be able to do it.
They tell us to take more responsibility. We can’t sit back and wait for the white man to do it because they stuff it up anyhow.
We know what we want. It is our community that needs to get themselves up there. We have to be part of the solution.
*Vilma Ryan is Riverstone Aboriginal Community Association spokeswoman.