Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: “This has been a government by deception” said reporters on Tuesday. He accused his predecessor of “throwing democracy in the trash” by assuming multiple state jobs and not informing the public.
Albanese said Morrison, who is still a member of parliament but was replaced as prime minister after an election in May, was appointed minister of health, finance, interior, treasury and industry from March 2020 to May 2021. All of these were important cabinet roles that already had ministers, and Morrison was sworn in as a minister for these departments, gaining extensive additional powers.
Some of Morrison’s colleagues expressed anger and surprise, noting that they did not know they were sharing their work with their boss.
Albanese said Morrison’s secret appointments came to light after an investigation and it was unclear whether Morrison retained his positions until it was voted on earlier this year.
“It is completely extraordinary that these appointments are kept secret from the Australian public by the Morrison government,” Albanese said in a statement in Canberra. “He undermined our democracy”
Our democracy is valuable. Our system is built on checks and balances, and the old government has deliberately undermined these checks and balances. The Australian people deserve accountability and transparency, not privacy. pic.twitter.com/fG8Y3Jcp3v
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) 16 August 2022
a long time post on facebook On Tuesday, Morrison defended his actions, citing the coronavirus pandemic and economic recession in Australia in 2020 and stating that he acted in good faith in a crisis.
“These were extraordinary times and required extraordinary measures to respond,” he said, adding that the risk of his ministers becoming “incompetent, sick” or unable to perform their duties was “very real” during the epidemic.
“As prime minister, I thought it was necessary to take security measures,” he said. “… I took the precaution of giving me the authority to manage various departments of the state, if needed due to the incompetence of a Minister or the interests of the country.” He added that he views such actions as “prudent” and “responsible”.
“In retrospect, these regulations were unnecessary,” Morrison said, adding that “a lot was going on at the time.”
He stressed that he never sought to act as “co-minister” and stressed that he only used additional business-related powers once, in April 2021, to overturn approval of a controversial gas project off the coast of New South Wales. . He said that a particular decision was made “in the national interest” and was “the only matter in which I have direct dealings with this or any other Department”.
Keith Pitt, the former minister responsible for the gas project and leading the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources at the time, said: said The Australian media were unaware that Morrison had joint oversight over the ministerial portfolio.
Another minister in Morrison’s government, Karen Andrews, who served as Home Secretary, said Australian radio didn’t know he was sharing his job either.
“The people of Australia are disappointed. They have been betrayed,” he said, urging Morrison to resign as an MP. “It is absolutely unacceptable for a former prime minister to behave in this way, secretly sworn in by other authorities…
While Australian newspapers highlighted the anger, actions on social media produced memes and jokes about Morrison’s multiple jobs.
Adam Bandt, MP for Melbourne and leader of the Green Party of Australia, said: “Scott Morrison hasn’t been able to do his job properly and it turns out he doesn’t trust other Ministers to do theirs either.” Wrote from Twitter. Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull also denounced “sinister secret government appointments” and said any official aware of this “showed a serious lack of respect and understanding of democratic rule”.
We should be very concerned that a Prime Minister, an AG, GG, and apparently their officials consider Morrison’s sinister secret government appointments to be legitimate. Has anyone objected? resignation jn protest? All showed a serious lack of respect and understanding of democratic governance.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) 15 August 2022
Anne Twomey, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sydney, wrote that the lack of transparency can affect government institutions.
The exercise of additional government powers “must be reported to parliament and officially published so that the public can know who has the right to exercise certain powers.” Wrote in an opinion piece. “Such matters are not appropriate to keep secret – especially if they are kept secret from the Cabinet and the minister who has been formally given responsibility for a portfolio by the governor general,” he added.
Albanese told the nation he would seek legal advice from the country’s attorney general on Morrison’s actions to determine next steps.
