Anthony Albanese probes Scott Morrison’s ministry secrets
Anthony Albanese is investigating whether Scott Morrison made more secret appointments heaping pressure on the former PM and GG.
Anthony Albanese is investigating whether Scott Morrison made more “extraordinary and unprecedented” secret appointments during the Covid-19 pandemic – beyond taking on the portfolios of health, finance and resources – heaping pressure on both the former prime minister and Governor-General David Hurley.
Cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss the saga after federal bureaucrats were tasked with finding out how and why Mr Morrison appointed himself to oversee several portfolios without the public and most of his colleagues knowing.
Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC is also probing the legality of Mr Morrison’s ministerial moves.
On Tuesday, Mr Albanese said that Mr Morrison may have sworn himself into up to three more portfolios. “What we need here is a pursuit of truth and a transparency about what happened when and why,” he told ABC Radio National.
“We will need some recommendations, potentially, of how this could be avoided in the future.
“This really does undermine our democracy. Our democracy is precious, and it relies upon accountability. Not only can I not think of a precedent for something like this occurring, I can’t even imagine what mindset enables someone to even think of acting in this way.”
Asked whether Mr Morrison could have assumed more than the three portfolios, Albanese said: “there may well be more”.
Government sources said there was “more to come” on Mr Morrison’s secret appointments and what had been uncovered on Monday was “pretty serious”. It is not expected cabinet will make any decisions on what actions to take on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister sought briefings and legal advice after The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that Mr Morrison hatched a radical, and until now secret, plan in March 2020 with then attorney-general Christian Porter to swear himself in as health and finance minister alongside Greg Hunt and Mathias Cormann.
The revelations – in a new book, Plagued by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, to be released on Tuesday – have shocked Mr Morrison’s most senior Coalition colleagues – including now Liberal leader Peter Dutton – who say they were blindsided by the former prime minister’s actions and opposition MPs are demanding he explain himself.
General Hurley on Monday was dragged into the growing controversy, defending the process that allowed Mr Morrison to appoint himself to ministerial posts in secret and saying the Constitution had been upheld.
Mr Albanese has labelled the secret cabinet appointments “tin pot activity” and accused Mr Morrison of running a “shadow government, while former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called it “sinister stuff” and “appalling”.
“This is dripping out like a tap that needs a washer fixed,” Mr Albanese said in Melbourne.
“What we need is actually to get the full flow of all the information out there and then we’ll make a decision about a way forward here. But these circumstances should never have arisen. You know, we do have a non-presidential system of government in this country, but what we had from Scott Morrison is a centralisation of power, is overriding of ministerial decisions, and all done in secret.
“In Australia, we have a Westminster system of government that produces accountability. This is the sort of tin-pot activity that we would ridicule if it was in a non-democratic country.”
General Hurley defended the secret appointments and said it was not uncommon for ministers to administer more than one department.
“The Governor-General, following normal process and acting on the advice of the government of the day, appointed former prime minister Morrison to administer portfolios other than the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,” a spokesman for the Governor-General’s official secretary said.
“The appointments were made consistently with section 64 of the Constitution.
“It is not uncommon for ministers to be appointed to administer departments other than their portfolio responsibility. These appointments do not require a swearing-in ceremony – the Governor-General signs an administrative instrument on the advice of the prime minister.”
General Hurley could not point to any other examples of prime ministers secretly appointing themselves to other portfolios, and none of Mr Morrison’s portfolio changes appear to be included in the government’s official gazette as is normal practice.
Mr Turnbull – who was replaced by Mr Morrison in 2018 after the Liberal partyroom moved against his leadership – said he was “astonished” the Governor-General was involved in the secret appointments.
“The idea a prime minister would be sworn into other ministries, secretly, is incredible,” told ABC’s 7.30. “I’m astonished that Morrison thought he could do it, I’m astonished that Prime Minister and Cabinet went along with it, that’s the department, and I’m even more astonished that the Governor-General was party to it.
“This is sinister stuff. This is secret government. We, the people, are entitled to know who is governing our country. We need to know who is the minister for this? Who is the minister for that? If, in fact, these things are all being done secretly, that’s not a democracy. This flies in the face of everything we believe.”
In a move that infuriated Nationals MPs, Mr Morrison was also appointed by General Hurley to take control of the entire Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in April 2021, nearly a year before he scuttled an offshore gas project in NSW.
The Australian understands Mr Cormann, who left parliament in October 2020 to become OECD secretary-general, was unaware of Mr Morrison’s undeclared additional ministries until the weekend.
Mr Hunt knew and welcomed the contingency plan for the then prime minister to step in if he became incapacitated, given the great powers the health minister held under the Biosecurity Act during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Dutton said he wasn’t consulted about Mr Morrison’s additional ministries and declined to say if there was anything wrong with the self-appointments.
“I wasn’t there for the decision making,” Mr Dutton told ABC radio. “When we first got the briefings on Covid, we were talking about morgues being set up adjacent to public hospitals. We were talking about the whole arrangement of potentially deploying police and army personnel to turn people away from emergency departments.”
Mr Morrison refused to answer questions about his additional ministries on Monday but texted Sky News’s chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert, who asked if the former prime minister wanted to respond to Mr Albanese’s scathing attack.
“No, haven’t seen what he has said. Since leaving the job I haven’t engaged in any day-to-day politics,” Mr Morrison reportedly said.
Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar defended Mr Morrison, tweeting: “The most extraordinary thing is Albanese’s focus on this instead of the worsening cost of living happening on his watch, a slowing economy and his broken promise to deliver all Australians a $275 power price saving.”
Nationals Leader David Littleproud said Mr Morrison’s decision to secretly swear himself in as a second resources minister was “pretty ordinary” and “disappointing”.
“As far as I’m concerned, if you have a cabinet, you trust your cabinet,” Mr Littleproud said.
“Those were the decisions of Scott Morrison. I don’t agree with them and I’m prepared to say that openly and honestly.”
Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie declared Mr Morrison’s appointments were “not okay” and endorsed Mr Albanese’s request for a departmental briefing. “These revelations do bring into question our Westminster system of government (and) the conventions that underpin how we have confidence and trust in our parliamentary system,” she told ABC TV.
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