‘We don’t trust in governments’ or UN, Scott Morrison tells Margaret Court’s Perth church

Scott Morrison has said he and his fellow worshippers “don’t trust in governments” and “don’t trust in the United Nations” during a sermon at Margaret Court’s church, where the former prime minister also said God had a “plan” for him after his election defeat.

“You’re not defined by your grievance or your offence or being part of some collective set of grievances you have to constantly assert out there,” Morrison said in his address to the Victory Life Centre in Perth on Sunday.

In the 50-minute address, Morrison reflected on the Coalition’s May election loss and spoke of his personal faith.

“Do you believe if you lose an election that God still loves you and has a plan for you?” he said, to laughs and cheers from the audience. “I do. Because I still believe in miracles.”

It appeared to be a reference to his 2019 election victory speech, when he said, “I have always believed in miracles”.

The former PM has kept a relatively low profile since steering the Coalition to election defeat two months ago.

He has given a small number of media interviews and a speech to the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul last week, as well as guest sermons at two church gatherings: one at his home church in Sydney’s Sutherland area, on the day after the election, and Sunday’s address to Court’s Pentecostal congregation in Perth.

Court, a former tennis champion, runs the Victory Life Centre. In recent years her comments about gay people – including claims that “tennis is full of lesbians” and that a “gay lobby” was trying to “get [into] the minds of children” through Australia’s Safe Schools anti-bullying program – have stirred outrage.

Introducing Morrison on to the stage on Sunday, Court told worshippers “we need to honour for what he does” and said her congregation had prayed for him.

Morrison called on worshippers to put their faith in religion above other institutions like government.

“God’s kingdom will come. It’s in his hands. We trust in him. We don’t trust in governments. We don’t trust in the United Nations, thank goodness,” he said. “We don’t trust in all these things, fine as they may be and as important as the role that they play. Believe me, I’ve worked in it and they are important.

“But as someone who’s been in it, if you are putting your faith in those things as I put my faith in the lord, you’re making a mistake. They are earthly, they are fallible. I’m so glad we have a bigger hope.”

Morrison remains the member for Cook and has been in federal parliament since 2007. He was a cabinet minister from 2013 until the May election, and director of the New South Wales Liberal party between 2000 and 2004.

He spoke about the general concept of “anxiety” that people experience about modern society, which he claimed was part of “Satan’s plan”. He stressed he was talking about a general anxiety, not “the biological issues that require proper medical, scientific treatment”.

The former prime minister also criticised so-called identity politics. “Something I’ve always railed against, the idea you’re defined by your gender or sexuality … your race, background, what language you speak. No. You’re defined as an individual, amazing creation of God,” he said.

Morrison several times referenced his “good friend” and former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who lost his seat of Kooyong at the election.

Speaking about the concept of prayer and reflection being a “safe space”, Morrison also appeared to poke fun at that terminology being applied to places designed to be free from abuse or bigotry.

“These words have been taken out of so much context these days and applied to things … oh, don’t even get me started,” he joked. “A real safe space is in communion and prayer.”

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In her address to the church, Court referred to attendees of the recent Wimbledon tennis championship and made a vague claim that “so many are on the highway to hell”.

When he was prime minister, Morrison gave an online sermon, partly organised by Court, in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020.

In August last year, Victory Life Centre said it received more than $500,000 from the jobkeeper program, as well as a $50,000 cashflow boost from a federal government grant, even though its revenue ultimately barely decreased.