Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has resisted phone calls to resign from parliament, after information emerged that he got secretly assumed five additional roles during his tenure.
He defended his decision – that was taken during the outbreak – as “necessary” in “extraordinary times”.
Mr Morrison is currently the member of parliament for Cook.
The facts caused uproar amongst the public and his colleagues, with one phoning his behaviour “dictatorial”.
Mr Morrison became joint minister for the health, financial, treasury, home affairs and resources portfolios from March 2020 and May 2021.
In a press meeting on Wednesday, Mister Morrison defended his decision by stating he was “acting in the national interest in a crisis” in case a minister had been incapacitated with Covid-19.
“I considered it was necessary to have authority, to have what were effectively emergency powers, to workout in extreme circumstances, ” he mentioned.
He added he previously never acted as minister despite getting secretly sworn in to those portfolios.
“I did not advise any department which i was to have legal system for carriage of any of the issues that the ministers were coping with on a day-to-day foundation, ” he mentioned.
When queried about why he had not disclosed the expansion of portfolios to cabinet or the broader open public, he argued there is a risk the powers he took on could have been misunderstood.
“I believe there was a great risk that will… those powers might be misinterpreted and confusing, which would have triggered unnecessary angst in the middle of a pandemic, inch he said.
The particular long-time politician comes under intense criticism in recent times from former colleagues – including his own party members : and the broader community after revelations pennyless about his expanded powers.
Current treasurer Jim Chalmers said Mr Morrison had “dictatorial tendencies”, and called upon Coalition leader Peter Dutton to condemn his actions.
Current prime minister Anthony Albanese called it an “unprecedented trashing of our democracy”.
The news came to gentle after two New Corp journalists published that the then-prime minister had assigned himself those roles, inside a recently-published book about the Morrison government’s reaction to the pandemic.
Some ministers — including the then fund minister Mathias Cormann – were reportedly unaware they were sharing portfolios with Mr Morrison.
