What exactly was going on during Scott Morrison’s prime ministership, and what’s with the secrecy and lack of transparency?
It appears now that Morrison may not have just been prime minister during his time in leading the Coalition in office. But also health minister, finance minister, and then later resources minister.
We just didn’t know about it. And, it seems, most of his own colleagues didn’t know either.
The questions about Morrison’s secrecy are being asked today following reports that the former PM quietly swore himself in as a second resources minister, and used the power to kill off a coastal gas project that had been supported by then-resources minister Keith Pitt.
The project was seen as politically risky for the Liberal Government, particularly for its inner city coastal seats that were being strongly challenged by independents (many of whom were successful).
There are also reports that Morrison swore himself into other portfolios as a “second minister”, including the health and finance portfolios under a “secret plan” approved by the then attorney-general Christian Porter. These reports are revealed in a new book by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, and published in The Australian newspaper today.
The reports claim that at the start of the COVID crisis, Morrison worked with Hunt on an administrative instrument that would enable Morrison to be health minister, alongside Greg Hunt.
Hunt is believed to have understood he was in a power-sharing arrangement. But then finance minister Mathias Cormann didn’t know that he was sharing the role.
Keith Pitt also didn’t appear to know he was sharing the resources ministry with the prime minister. “I certainly found it unusual”, Pitt said upon learning of the move.
Samantha Maiden reported over the weekend that Morrison’s former deputy, Barnaby Joyce, learned about the resource portfolio sharing arrangement when Keith Pitt was “shocked” to learn about it himself in December 2021.
In a press conference this morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the actions by Morrison as “extraordinary and unprecedented”
“Nothing about the last government was real, not even the government itself.”
“Australians knew I was running a shadow ministry. What they didn’t know was Scott Morrison was running a shadow government,” Albanese said.
He said it showed Morrison’s contempt for Australia’s democratic processes, and asked how much now Opposition leader Peter Dutton also knew.
He added that his government would be receiving a full briefing on the situation on Monday afternoon, before making more comments on the matter.
How did Australians not know what was going on, and who really held the power in these portfolios? Some may have understood and even accepted the need for a second minister during an unprecedented emergency. But what we can’t and won’t accept is the lack of transparency on the process.