Morrison, Houston & Hillsong: Analysing two viral claims - including one from the PM himself

The Prime Minister's friendship with Houston has been the subject of controversy over recent years.

Following revelations that Hillsong pastor Brian Houston has resigned from the church over allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards 2 women, PM Scott Morrison has dissociated himself from his friend and mentor.

2 viral claims have been made following this news - let's analyse them now:

Brian Houston at National Cabinet

An image supposedly showing Brian Houston at a National Cabinet has been shared across Twitter - but the picture is actually made up of two seperate images.

The first image is from the AAP - taken on May 1, 2020 - which they describe as "Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy (speaking) with Jim McDowell, Chief Executive of the South Australia Department of Premier and Cabinet and Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian during a National Cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders to discuss the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and the government's response at Parliament House in Canberra."

In addition, the image was used in this 7News.com.au article.

The image of Houston himself is from an appearance in the witness box during the Royal Commission on Child Sex Abuse, which can be seen in a tweet from 60 Minutes.

RATING: FALSE

PM "hasn't been at Hillsong now for about 15 years"

The other claim we're looking at is one that came from the Prime Minister directly, with Scott Morrison telling reporters earlier this week that "I haven’t been at Hillsong now for about 15 years."

The PM said this despite the fact that he attended the church's annual conferences in 2019 - even giving an an address to a crowd of thousands.

While we've taken into consideration speculation that the PM meant that he wasn't part of regular congregation - we're fact-checking based solely on what he said exactly.

RATING: FALSE

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