Central Coast Federal MPs have added their voices to outpourings of outrage over news that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretly took on a number of extra portfolios in 2020 and 2021.
It was revealed earlier this week that Morrison was sworn in as Joint Minister for Health, Finance, Treasury, Home Affairs and Resources in the two years before losing power in May, with most of his parliamentary colleagues, including some of the relevant Ministers, unaware of the move.
Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has announced he will be receiving legal advice on Morrison’s actions from Australia’s Solicitor General, describing the move as “extraordinary and unprecedented” and “trashing our democracy”.
Member for Robertson, Gordon Reid, said the move showed “contempt for democratic processes and our Westminster system of government”.
“A list of ministers is made public so people can be held accountable,” he said.
“These revelations raise a lot of questions, including what Peter Dutton and other continuing members of the now Shadow Ministry knew about these circumstances.”
Member for Dobell, Emma McBride, said the Australian system of government is underpinned by openness and transparency and Australians “deserve better”.
Morrison defended his actions in a lengthy Facebook post on August 16, saying they were in response to the “devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated recession”.
“The risk of Ministers becoming incapacitated, sick, hospitalised, incapable of doing their work at a critical hour or even fatality was very real,” he said.
“As Prime Minister, I considered it necessary to put in place safeguards, redundancies and contingencies to ensure the continuity and effective operation of Government during this crisis period, which extended for the full period of my term.”
But many of Morrison’s colleagues remain outraged over the cloak of secrecy surrounding the move, with some calling for his resignation, including former Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, who was unaware the then Prime Minister had taken on her portfolio.
The only matter Morrison says he involved himself with “directly” was the controversial application for renewal of the PEP 11 permit for offshore gas exploration.
The validity of Morrison’s cancellation of the permit earlier this year could now be in question, with then Resources Minister Keith Pitt never signing off on it and an appeal of the decision by Asset Energy before the Federal Court.
Save Our Coast (SOC) Founder and Director, Dr Natasha Deen, said she was confident the cancellation would stand.
“The fact that the past Prime Minister intervened to end PEP 11 is testament to the outpouring of community opposition that simply highlighted the obvious reasons why this flawed project should not proceed,” Dean said.
“The outcome was clearly in the community’s best interest, and (Morrison) used whatever process he could to end PEP 11 due to its detrimental environmental, social and economic impact, as it was clearly a matter of national significance.
“Both the outgoing and incoming government have stated their strong opposition to PEP11 and we are confident they will honour their commitment to ending this risky project.”
Fellow SOC Director, Mark Mann, said the group’s campaign against PEP11 was one of the most strongly supported environmental campaigns the Coast has ever seen.
“Whatever the politics involved, the licence was cancelled for entirely valid reasons, and needs to remain cancelled,” he said.
See separate story for more details: https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2022/08/pep-11-in-the-spotlight-again-after-ex-pms-irregularities/.
Terry Collins
It’s worth asking what Lucy Wicks knew about Scott Morrison’s acquisition of the Resources Ministry and how that would have enabled him to block renewal of the PEP-11 licence.
During last year, Ms Wicks was pushing some vague “community” solution to PEP-11 despite Resources Minister Keith Pitt having the ability to block the licence’s renewal from about February 2021.
Ms Wicks pushed this “community” solution, as opposed to a “political” solution following the quashing of a move by Zali Steggles to permanently legislate against the licence.
Then, prior to the Glasgow Climate Summit, against a background of Liberal concessions to the Nationals, Keith Pitt is promoted to Cabinet.
Finally, we have the lame photo op announcement at Terrigal Surf Club designed to save the coastal seats of Wicks, Falinksi, etc.
Scott Morrison’s faction within the Liberal Party was small compared to other factions and included Ms Wicks. He was, after all, the compromise candidate after the rolling of Malcolm Turnbull.
If she was aware of this undemocratic portfolio grab, she should perhaps re-evaluate any plans for a political comeback.
It’s also worth looking at the other portfolios poached by Morrison and associated polling or factional issues. As well as a means to solve sensitive election issues like PEP-11, the portfolio grab would also serve as a hedge against factional rivals.
If this was about leadership in extraordinary times, as Mr Morrison claims, why didn’t he, for example, use the Health portfolio to fast track vaccine roll-out?
The whole issue is bizarre, undemocratic and unAustralian.
So many things were done in the height of the pandemic that might have concerned the public, yet would have been disastrous if not anticipated.
It really seems that it is only the MPs and the ABC news who have their knickers in a knot about this. The general public really don’t care.
The vaccine mandates that caused so many people to lose their jobs or businesses was a much greater scandal.