Scott Morrison: Ex-Australia PM undermined government principles, advice says

Australia’s previous best minister “fundamentally undermined” responsible government simply by secretly appointing himself to additional ministries, the country’s solicitor-general has found.

In advice provided to the current government, the solicitor-general said Scott Morrison’s actions had been legal.

But their decision to keep them secret from the general public and his own colleagues was “inconsistent” along with conventions.

Mr Morrison has defended the steps as “necessary” in “extraordinary times”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called Mr Morrison’s activities an “unprecedented trashing of our democracy”. On Tuesday, Mr Albanese announced an query into the affair.

Mr Morrison had turn out to be joint minister for health, finance, treasury, home affairs and resources in the two years before he dropped power in May.

Most ministers had been reportedly unaware these were sharing portfolios with Mr Morrison and has been criticised simply by some colleagues.

The Queen’s consultant Governor-General David Hurley, who appointed him to the ministries, reports he believed they would be made public.

Mr Morrison says he only intervened in a single decision – overruling a call at that time Resources Minister Keith Pitt.

Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue was asked to investigate Mr Morrison’s appointment to that ministry and whether his intervention has been legal.

Mr Donaghue concluded it was not really illegal, but said: “Neither the people neither the parliament holds a minister accountable… if they are not aware how the minister has these powers. ”

Mister Albanese said the advice was a “very clear criticism” associated with Mr Morrison’s activities, adding he would provide details of a wider inquiry at a later date.

“What we know is that there was clearly no transparency here at all, ” this individual told reporters.

Mr Morrison has said their moves aimed to make sure government could continue operating if ministers were incapacitated simply by Covid.

“They had been put in there as a safeguard as a ‘break-glass-in-case-of-emergency’ and as a result, thankfully, we didn’t need to break the glass, inch he said in the press conference last week.

“I think there was a great risk that… all those powers could be misunderstood and misunderstood, which may have caused unnecessary angst in the middle of the pandemic. ”