The Australian government has played a game of pass the buck over the last week trying to distance itself from their responsibility of allowing the Ruby Princess to dock in Sydney on Thursday, March 19. Whilst a silver boat trophy emblazoned with “I stopped these” sits on top of the Prime Minster’s desk, Scott Morrison would have you believe the cruise ship responsible for 400 cases of COVID19 was nobody’s fault.

Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Whilst the government refuses to identify the ministers responsible for docking, in thinly veiled hopes the incident will somehow blow over, sources have grown frustrated with the negligence and reached out to journalists. Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a source names the man responsible as Assistant Defence Minister Alex Hawke — the Liberal member for Mitchell. Allegedly the in-laws of Hawke were on board the ship, along with other passengers from the Hillsong church that his family are a part of.

Hawke has frequently been identified as Prime Minister Morrison’s ‘Right Hand Man’ and was influential in the leadership spill that saw Morrison replace Malcom Turnbull as the country’s leader in 2018. The source’s tip adds up with Hawke working as Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s assistant and with the Prime Minster in Hawke’s debt after acting as his“spear thrower” for being “brutally effective at marshalling numbers” for the leadership ballot.

Edit April 3rd 6:26 PM : Since the publishing of the post, journalist Samantha Maiden has refuted these claims as rumours. I am open to further investigations and will happily retract and apologise for any incorrect information should further evidence surface. However, I find it difficult to believe any current dismissals of these accusations from the government — especially when no alternative explanation for the Ruby Princess debacle is put forward — after the Liberal party previously dismissed Scott Morrison in Hawaii (published by Samantha Maiden), the invitation to Brian Houston at the White House, and Morrison’s children not being in school as “rumours” also.

Hawke and Morrison, Source: AAP

Morrison and Hawke also share a common faith through their relationship with the Hillsong Church. Hawke has been a member since at least 2005 whilst Morrison has been outspoken about his Pentecostal beliefs throughout his Prime Ministership. Morrison brought cameras inside his family’s church for their Easter service last year. In July, 2019 Scott Morrison attended a Hillsong convention as a guest to pray to ‘break the curse of suicide’. Morrison has also come under fire for attempting to invite Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston to a function held in the White House last year. The criticism is drawn, not only from the interference between Australia’s separation of church and state, but also the fact Houston remains under investigation by NSW Police in regards to his father’s sexual abuse within the church. During this time NSW Police have refused to confirm or deny whether Scott Morrison has attempted to interfere with these investigations.

Scott Morrison and wife Jenny on stage with Brian Houston (9/7/19)

Allowing a boat with Hillsong members to dock wouldn’t be the first time that Morrison has granted favour to his church during the COVID pandemic. On Friday, March 13, the Prime Minister announced a ban on gatherings of 500 people, however the ban would not actually start until Monday. No reason was explicitly given for the delay between the announcement and the commencement of the ban, but Hillsong’s Colour Conference in Sydney’s North East was attended by over 3000 people on Saturday, March14th. As the crisis has continued to escalate the government has been forced to take stricter measures in regards to lockdowns. The NSW Police have been granted extra powers to enforce a mandatory lockdown where people can no longer leave the house for non-essential reasons. These restrictions are set to be lifted on July 1, which is conveniently one week before Hillsong’s next scheduled mega conference to be held at Qudos Bank Arena over 4 days. [Personal note: The conference is ironically titled ‘Breathe Again’ whilst we’re in the middle of an epidemic that attacks the respiratory system.]

Thousands converge in Baulkham Hills for Hillsong’s Colour Conference (14/3/20) Source: Daily Mail Australia

As the revelation of Hillsong’s insidious role in our country’s government becomes clearer by the day, the mainstream Australian media has remained mostly silent on the organisation. One can’t help but wonder how the Murdoch press would have reacted if Kevin Rudd’s response to the GFC was somehow influenced by an outside group, or if any other Labor ministers were wilfully endangering the nation’s safety for the sake of their church buddies. When recently messaging a journalist from The Guardian, I asked why they hadn’t covered Hillsong in any of their recent articles and they reluctantly admitted to trying to work around an apparent gag order.

Personal screenshot from a conversation with an anonymous journalist (26/3/20)

Most recently Scott Morrison took part in a 25-hour prayer marathon held over Zoom last weekend. Scott Morrison begins his prayer with “heavenly father, we just commit our nation to you in this terrible time of great need” — A gross violation of the separation between church and state. Morrison is free to engage in prayer in his personal life, but to commit our country to his God whilst acting as our country’s leader and sitting in his parliamentary office is crossing a line.

Morrison on the Zoom call inside his office Source: Josh Butler’s Youtube screen capture

Footage was initially uploaded by Eternity News before being deleted. A phone recording of the footage was then uploaded by Queensland Parents for Secular State Schools before their clip was also deleted. An edited version of the clip can be found on Guardian’s Youtube. The organisation believed to be responsible for organising the prayer call is Canberra Declaration. Canberra Declaration’s official website published a post on March 19 detailing the ‘Call to Prayer’ and including the Zoom link, written by the Australian Christian Churches National President, and leading Hillsong contributor, Wayne Alcorn.

Additional blog posts can be found on the Canberra Declaration website where COVD19 is compared to abortion and abortion is described as a ‘plague’, the virus is claimed to be part of God’s ‘much greater plan’, and claiming the droughts, summer bushfires and COVID19 are ‘God’s teachings’.

Scott Morrison and the Liberal party need to decide whether he is going to serve his God or our country, because it is becoming apparently clear that he cannot serve both.

Edit April 3, 6:46PM: The response to this post has been overwhelming with over 68,000 views, along with trending on Australian reddit and twitter, all within less than 24 hours (I have spent the day under my bed covers half expecting the AFP to bust down the door). This post was intended as a way for me to process all the information that has been circling in my head since Morrison made the decision to announce to ban 500 people gatherings on a Friday but enact the ban on Monday after the Hillsong conference had happened. In the following weeks since I became increasingly frustrated by the growing connection between the government’s decisions and the Pentecostal church along with the lack of reporting or investigative journalism being done about this.

To make this as clear as possible — I am not a journalist. I have never been employed by the media and my degree is a Bachelor is in Social Science (with no journalism units taken). I consider this post to be a blog post rather than an article and I have done my best to include linked citations to a majority of my claims — with the obvious exception of an anonymous source who shall continue to remain nameless.

My hope for writing this was to push the friends I have, who are real journalists, into investigating more and exposing the complete truth. Seeing Samantha Maiden — the journalist who broke the Scott Morrison in Hawaii photos — joining in this discussion now is far more than I had hoped for. I sincerely hope someone with her experience and credentials, along with any other journalists who are now following this story, are now able to push through with a real investigation that exposes the whole truth, more than just the fragments I have been able to piece together here.

I have made no personal gain from this post. There was no monetisation. I have no linked social media accounts to try and acquire a following or career with. My only interest is the greater good for the Australian population.

I am an Australian citizen concerned for my country. I am autistic woman confined to my house indefinitely with a pre-existing lung condition. I am hopeful that the wide spread circulation of this post will inspire other “quiet Australians” to demand the truth of the government who is meant to represent us and not a religious sect.