A WA based facility that allegedly conducted exorcisms and LGBTQ conversion practices only formally applied for $4million worth of Commonwealth funding after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the grant was being awarded.
The Guardian has shared that documents released under Freedom of Information laws show that bureaucrats were left racing around to get information to create an application of the funding after the PM made an announcement in the leadup to the 2019 federal election.
The Esther Foundation, a Perth-based residential facility claimed to provide support for women and girls experiencing mental health concerns and substance abuse challenges.
The organisation operated for almost three decades with significant state and federal government support, but clients later shared stories emotional and psychological abuse, coercive and extreme religious practices, LGBTQA+ suppression and conversion practices, culturally harmful practices, medical complaints, family alienation, physical restraints and assaults, and sexual assault.
A report from delivered in December 2022 from the WA parliament’s Education and Health Standing Committee looked into complaints and allegations concerning the Esther Foundation from former residents, staff and volunteers.
Their report into the activities at Perth’s religious based facility Esther House has highlighted Western Australia’s lack of legislation specifically outlawing conversion practices and suppression practices that aim to change a person’s sexuality or gender. It found that harm was caused to clients, staff, volunteers and their family. It also found that the culture of the organisation had allowed unacceptable behaviours and practices to occur and go undetected.
The organisation entered voluntary administration in April 2022.
Earlier this year the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) found that the grant awarded to the Esther Foundation via the Community Health and Hospitals program was likely to have been unlawful.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited the foundation on International Women’s Day in 2019 and announced the awarding of $4 million funding to support their work,
Documents have shown while the head of the foundation and written to then Health Minister Greg Hunt earlier in the year requesting $1 million worth of funding over three years, there was no formal grant application for the money that was announced by Morrison. Days after the PM announced the $4million grant health officials were seeking more information from The Esther Foundation about their needs.
The ANAO has delivered a scathing assessment of the Health Department’s process for approving the funding, and noted that many of the items listed as expenditure on the application were not eligible under the government’s own rules.
The grant’s approval was expedited, and on the same day it was approved the government received advice that the awarding of the grant was likely to be unlawful. Despite the legal advice the grant still proceeded.
Cancelation of the payments only stopped when the organisation entered administration. By then $2 million dollars of tax payers money had been delivered.
Current Health Minister Mark Butler said Scott Morrison needed to explain why he’d made this ‘Captain’s pick”.
“The former government entered into a grant without a financial viability assessment, audited financial statements, or even the legal authority to support the expenditure,” Butler said.
“Subsequently, deeply distressing allegations against Esther House were aired and a WA parliamentary inquiry was held into allegations of sexual and psychological abuse at the foundation.”
OIP Staff, Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been approached for comment.Â
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