The Albanese government will move to censure former Prime Minister Scott Morrison over his secret appointments to several ministries, after a report found his actions had “fundamentally undermined the principles of responsible government”.
It comes as the Labor cabinet endorsed the six recommendations of former High Court justice Virginia Bell’s inquiry into Morrison’s actions, which will involve legislative changes.
“The cabinet this morning has endorsed all six recommendations of the Bell inquiry,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Monday. “We will introduce legislation later this week to make sure that this can never, ever happen again.”
“And this week, as well, the House will be moving a censure motion in the member for Cook as a result of the findings of Virginia Bell and the inquiry, which found that the actions of the former prime minister fundamentally undermined the principles of responsible government, because the former prime minister wasn’t responsible to the parliament – and through the parliament to the electors – to the departments that he was appointed to administer.”
“And that that had real consequences of acting to undermine public confidence in government and were corrosive of trust in government.”
The censure motion will pass the House of Representatives where Labor has a majority later this week.
Virginia Bell’s damning report into Morrison’s secretive ministerial appointments during the pandemic was released on Friday, finding he had corroded public trust when he took control of several key ministries – health, finance, treasury, home affairs, and resources.
Bell labelled Morrison’s actions as “unnecessary” and “difficult to reconcile”, while one of her main recommendations was to introduce new laws to ensure all ministerial appointments are made public.
The Coalition has already said it will not support the motion against Morrison.
The last time an MP was censured by federal parliament was in 2018.