Anthony Albanese will seek legal advice on news reports that his predecessor, Scott Morrison, secretly swore himself into additional federal government portfolios when in office.
Albanese told a press conference in Melbourne on Monday that Morrison’s lack of transparency was an affront to Australia’s Westminster system of government. He added the lack of transparency about ministerial responsibility clouded issues about who was accountable for decisions of government, and implied Morrison was not focused on his primary role as PM.
“What did Peter Dutton and other continuing members of the now shadow ministry know about these circumstances?,” Albanese asked.
“How is it that the Australian people can be misled, whereby Scott Morrison was not only being prime minister, but was minister for health, was minister for industry and science, at the same time as resources, [and] was the minister for finance?
The new book ‘Plagued’, written by journalists Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers details how Morrison secretly swore himself into the health, resources and finance portfolios.
Former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce this week also told News.com.au that Morrison’s additional powers in the resources portfolio were to override a decision by responsible minister Keith Pitt about a proposed petroleum exploration permit (PEP-11) between Manly and Newcastle.
Albanese said he would be briefed on the controversy by Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet secretary Glyn Davis and solicitor-general Dr Stephen Donaghue QC by the end of the day. He suggested the former PM’s conduct showed the last Coalition government was ‘operating in the shadows’.
“This is a sort of tin-pot activity that we would ridicule if it was in a non-democratic country,” the PM said.
“How is it that the governor-general could swear in Scott Morrison into ministerial portfolios, without there being a transparency there about that process? This is quite extraordinary.”
A spokesperson for GG David Hurley said the decision to appoint Morrison to administer portfolios beyond DPM&C was in keeping with advice from the Coalition government.
“The appointments were made consistently with section 64 of the constitution,” the GG’s spokesperson said.
“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 GG signs an administrative instrument on the advice of the prime minister.”
Albanese slammed the secrecy around additional portfolio powers given to the former PM, pointing to questions about the PEP-11 project Labor had put to then-resources minister Kieth Pitt, and asking why Morrison did not choose to disclose his relevant responsibilities at the time.
He said it was galling that in a government where there was a non-presidential system of power, such as in Australia, a prime minister could secretly override ministerial decisions, and use centralised power to do so.
“The people of Australia were kept in the dark as to what the ministerial arrangements were. It’s completely unacceptable,” Albanese said.
“There’s an absolute need for clear transparency to come through here. 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.”
Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey told ABC News Morrison’s secret powers were ‘very odd’.
“It’s not strange that [Morrison] might want to have a second person who was able to take over if the first [minster] was incapacitated, etc. but there are ways of doing that anyway,” Twomey said.
“Ordinarily, the basic rules are you announce it to parliament — because Parliament needs to know who is responsible — and also, you can just make changes to the administrative arrangements orders, which is the other way of doing this.
“Frankly, it’s just bizarre. The secretness of it is the weird thing,” she said.
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