At the time of the hearing Murray Houston was the Commercial Manager for The Salvation Army and the Manager of the Royal Commission Response. Mr Houston has been employed by The Salvation Army since 1999.
He is a “lay” or “civilian” employee, and is not affiliated with The Salvation Army congregation. Since 2000, Mr Houston has had primary responsibility within The Salvation Army for dealing with claims and the redress process. In his evidence, he provided a summary of claims made to The Salvation Army and an overview to the approach of these claims prior to, and post 2003, when there was an increase in claims. His evidence explained the process in place for responding to claims since 2003. In his supplementary statement, Mr Houston responded to some of the evidence given by survivors in Phase 1 of the Faith-based hearing.
