Former Australian Prime Minister Morrison secretly acquired additional powers

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday accused his predecessor, Scott Morrison, of “destroying democracy” after revealing that while Morrison was in power, he took on five ministerial roles without the knowledge of most other legislators or the public.

Albanese said Morrison had been operating in secret, keeping the Australian people in the dark and misleading Parliament about who was in charge of which portfolios.

“This has been a government by deception,” Albanese said.

In addition to revelations detailed for the first time over the weekend by News Corp. outlets, Albanese said that between March 2020 and May 2021, Morrison was appointed minister of health, finance, home affairs, treasury and industry, measures which seemed to have given Morrison the same powers for ministers already appointed to those positions.

“It is completely extraordinary that the Morrison government has kept these appointments secret from the Australian people,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB, Morrison defended taking on the additional portfolios, saying they were a safeguard during the coronavirus pandemic and that he would have made the appointments public had he needed to use the powers involved.

“Sometimes we forget what happened two years ago and the situation we were going through. It was an unconventional and unprecedented moment,” Morrison told the radio station.

He pointed to the coronavirus hospitalization of the then British prime minister.

“Boris Johnson almost died one night,” Morrison said. “We had ministers who got sick with COVID.”

Morrison used his extra powers on at least one occasion to overturn a decision by former Minister Keith Pitt to approve a controversial gas project off the coast of New South Wales.

Pitt said in a statement that he was unaware that Morrison had joint oversight of his ministerial portfolio and that he stands behind the decisions he made at the time.

In a more detailed account posted on Facebook later Tuesday, Morrison wrote that the gas project was the only matter he was directly involved in and that “I think I made the right decision in the national interest.”

Morrison said that “for any offense to my colleagues, I apologize.”

But Karen Andrews, who served as Home Affairs Secretary under Morrison, said Morrison never told her that he, too, would be appointed to the portfolio. She said Morrison, who remains in Parliament on opposition benches, should resign.

“The Australian people have been let down, they have been betrayed,” he said. “For a former prime minister to have behaved in such a way, secretly swearing into other portfolios, undermines the Westminster system, it is absolutely unacceptable.”

Albanese said he was seeking an opinion from the attorney general on the legality of some of Morrison’s moves, including the gas project, and expected to receive one on Monday.

“This is a sad indictment not only of Mr. Morrison, but of all those cabinet colleagues of his who sat by and allowed this to happen. It has undermined our democracy, it is an attack on the Westminster parliamentary democracy system as we know it,” Albanese said. “And not just Mr. Morrison, but others who were involved in this must be held accountable.”

Morrison’s moves have left legal scholars scratching their heads.

Professor Anne Twomey, a constitutional law expert at the University of Sydney, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that it was reasonable for Morrison to want a second person who could take over if the first person was incapacitated.

But he said any ministerial appointments would normally be registered and published in the government gazette.

“Do that kind of thing in secret? Very, very strange,” Twomey said.

Morrison’s moves were approved by Governor General David Hurley.

A spokesman for Hurley said the governor general followed processes consistent with the constitution.

“It is not uncommon for ministers to be appointed to manage departments that are not their portfolio responsibility,” the spokesman said in a statement. “These appointments do not require a swearing-in ceremony. The governor general signs an administrative instrument on the advice of the prime minister.”

Morrison was the prime minister at the time who was giving that advice.

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