Scott Morrison and the Secret Ministries.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been censured by some in the Australian parliament for giving himself secret powers while in office.
These secret powers gave the Prime Minister the ability to make decisions in the Government, along with the Minister of that department.
Mr Morrison has defended appointing himself, while being Prime Minister, to become joint minister for health, finance, treasury, home affairs and resources during the Covid pandemic.
His reasoning being, so that those departments had a minister even if the minister appointed by the Prime Minister was out of action due to illness.
Mr Morrison told parliament that with hindsight he believed his decisions had been “unnecessary” and he’d given them “insufficient consideration”.
Mr Morrison repeated his defence of his actions, in a statement posted on social media.
“These decisions were taken during an extremely challenging period, where there was a need for considerable urgency,” he said, noting critics were speaking with the “benefit” of hindsight.
An investigation found that his appointments were in fact legal, and that he used his extra powers only once.
The new government, headed by Anthony Albanese, has already promised new laws that would require any similar appointments to be publicly disclosed in future.
It is vital that a Prime Minister, who is responsible for placing a Minister in any political position, and who is ultimately responsible, must advise the public if he takes joint responsibility for any individual political position, even in an emergency situation.
Presumably, if the Prime Minister does not hold that extra position, the Prime Minister cannot be held responsible for any individual departments failings.
The censure motion, brought by the ruling Labor party, was passed with 86 of the 151 members of parliament in favour of the censure.
The current parliament consists of
- 77 ALP members.
- 58 Liberal/National members.
- 16 Other/Independent members.
It appears that the numbers who voted to censure Scott Morrison would be:
- 77 of the 77 ALP members.
- 1 of the 58 Liberal/National members.
- 8 of the 16 Other/Independent members.
Bridget Archer, a Liberal MP, said she didn’t accept Mr Morrison’s explanation of his actions and supported the censure.
A censure triggers no consequence for Mr Morrison.