(Image: Private Media)

This is the first of three stories in a Crikey investigation into a federal government-funded rehab facility with close ties to Hillsong — and how taxpayers are paying for a deal set up by the Morrison government.

The federal government is locked into a three-year, million-dollar-plus funding deal with a rehabilitation facility described by a former resident as “a Hillsong indoctrination centre”, a Crikey investigation has found.

The deal, approved by the Morrison government in 2019, sees the rehab facility, known as one80TC, paying funds to Teen Challenge NSW, a charity whose office holders include the powerful Hillsong “elder” Andrew Denton (not to be confused with TV producer and assisted dying campaigner Andrew Denton).

Teen Challenge and one80TC have the same Australian business number, and Denton, a prime mover of Hillsong’s Kingdom Builders donation arm, is an office holder in both.

Teen Challenge is contracted to provide “pastoral services” to treat drug and alcohol addiction to one80TC residents.

Relations between one80TC and Hillsong are so close that residents were required to attend Hillsong services twice a week and work as unpaid labour at church events.

One former resident, Jacob Harrison, has told Crikey he was a volunteer at Hillsong’s 2018 annual conference where he was put to work washing then global pastor Brian Houston’s Audi: “I would describe one80TC as a Hillsong indoctrination centre with a mild interest in rehabilitation.”

The current funding arrangement ends in 2023.

Crikey understands that the Morrison government stepped in to ensure the facility continued to receive funding in 2019 after the federal Health Department declined to fund it. Crikey understands that the government’s funding promise was made after “lobbying” from interests linked to the facility.

The government ultimately approved funding of just under $2 million in the weeks before the 2019 election. In the years since, one80TC has paid just over $1.3 million to Teen Challenge NSW for “pastoral services”.

The precise nature of the “pastoral services” is unclear. It is also unclear whether the payments are internal paper transfers or are made to external parties. Hillsong and one80TC did not respond to Crikey’s emailed questions.

The decision to fund the Hillsong-linked one80TC was the second such decision to be made by the Morrison government before an election it was considered likely to lose.

As Crikey revealed earlier this year, then prime minister Scott Morrison announced a $4 million grant to the Pentecostal-linked Esther Foundation rehab facility during a visit to Perth before the 2019 election. The Esther Foundation has since gone into voluntary administration and is the subject of a Western Australian parliamentary inquiry into revelations of religion-based abuse of girls and young women over nearly two decades. 

Harrison, who lived at one80TC for six months after leaving a psychiatric ward, told Crikey he had never seen any government checks at the facility, which is set in bushland on Sydney’s fringe.

“There was never that kind of oversight you get with psychiatric hospitals where you get official visitors and things like that,” he said. “No one from the outside came in.” 

So what is one80TC?

The name one80TC is a piece of branding which obscures the organisation’s Pentecostal-Christian heritage. It refers to turning a life around. The initials TC refer to Teen Challenge, a global faith-based organisation founded by a Pentecostal pastor in the US. Teen Challenge NSW Limited is also the name of one80TC’s related entity which supplies “pastoral services”. 

Documents lodged with the federal charities regulator, the he Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) set out the overt religious underpinnings of one80TC.

Its constitution defines its rehabilitation work as a “ministry”, which its says operates “in sympathy with the aims and objectives of the Assemblies of God in Australia (national office) and of Teen Challenge worldwide”.  The Assemblies of God is the umbrella organisation of Australia’s Pentecostal churches.

One80TC’s website says church attendance is compulsory “both during the week and on Sundays”.

This month, residents gathered to hear Hillsong senior pastor Phil Dooley’s two-hour Heart & Soul session. Before that, also this month, Hillsong pastor Christina Jury visited one80TC and “preach[ed] the house down”, according to the one80TC’s social media. “We also had powerful testimonies, amazing worship tears, laughter and Holy Spirit-filled breakthroughs. Wednesday chapel at One80tc is the place to be!!”

The rehab facility’s related entity, Teen Challenge NSW Inc, aims to provide “Christian-focused support” for those in the one80TC program and “to promote the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teachings of the word of God so as to bring about life-changing habits”.

Its primary long-term objective is to encourage those who have graduated from the one80TC program to engage in further theological studies and remain connected to a local Christian church.

Both one80TC and Teen Challenge refer to those undergoing rehab as “students”, while Teen Challenge’s declaration to the charities’ regulator says it provides “management services” rather than pastoral.

Apart from Hillsong’s Denton, other common officeholders include Mark Burgess, a board member of Alphacrucis College, the official training college for Australia’s Pentecostal churches. 

Denton and Burgess are the longest-serving directors of one80TC and Teen Challenge NSW, each on the board of Teen Challenge for well over a decade. Former board directors include another Hillsong figure, Peter McCloskey.

The organisation’s general manager (a former addict) is Troy Kitto, a pastor whose brother Darren is a member of Hillsong’s global board. 

Politics and money

Sources in the not-for-profit rehab sector say one80TC failed to gain approval from the federal Health Department for further funding in 2019 when it came time to renew its three-year funding deal under the department’s alcohol and other drug treatment services grants scheme.

(The NSW government does not provide funding to one80TC, although that has not stopped Premier Dominic Perrottet offering his public support for the organisation as NSW treasurer. See below.)

Despite the department’s refusal, the Morrison government came through, delivering grants not just from the Health Department but from across the government. Grant records show that the federal Health Department ultimately approved funding of $1,832,482 on March 25, 2019.

This was a significant increase on the first approved amount of $1,308,000, which was then increased by variations on three separate dates in February. (One80TC is in the federal seat of Macquarie, the most marginal seat in Australia in 2019.)

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications also weighed in, with three separate grants since 2019 totalling $49,500 to one80TC ($22,000 each for two cars as well as a $5500 grant to upgrade a counselling room). The Department of Social Services pitched in a further $5000 for a “volunteer” grant.

The federal grant money is additional to residents’ Centrelink benefits which go to one80TC and form the basis of its finances. (One80TC has up to 40 residents at any time, in shared bunk-style accommodation.)  

Perrottet gets in on the act

NSW Health does not fund one80TC. (It hasn’t answered Crikey’s questions why.) Despite this it received Perrottet’s strong personal endorsement when he was treasurer, provided in a video message for an one80TC fundraising night held in NSW Parliament House in 2019. The gala dinner was attended by more than 200 supporters.

Perrottet had been on hand as then local member in 2018 to cut the ribbon for the opening of a women’s centre at one80TC.

Plenty of questions — no answers

The revelation of a second Morrison government grant to a Pentecostal rehab organisation — apparently without the endorsement of the Health Department — raises questions about the role of former health minister Greg Hunt.

Crikey has asked the Health Department how funding was decided and what lobbying was done of the Morrison government. We also asked why the federal government funded one80TC given that NSW does not, what checks had been made, and the department’s view on grant funds possibly being used to pay for pastoral services.

(One80TC’s records show it received just under $1 million — over half its allotted grant — in 2019. At the same time it has transferred $1,325,000 for “pastoral services” to its related entity.)

We have sent a list of questions to one80TC seeking answers on how the “pastoral services” money is spent and details on its relationship with Hillsong. We have also asked Hillsong to comment on payments it may have received for providing “pastoral services”.

Neither the Health Department, nor one80TC nor Hillsong have responded.

Next: Jacob Harrison attended one80TC rehab for six months. The experience did his head in.