Update: Albanese Says Morrison Secretly Appointed Himself To Five Ministries

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Scott Morrison was secretly appointed to five ministries, slamming the previous PM’s actions as “unprecedented trashing of our democracy”.

Yesterday it was reported Morrison took on the health, finance and industry and science portfolios, while Albanese said at a press conference this morning his predecessor was also appointed as treasury and home affairs minister.

“I can say that today, I have been informed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that between March 2020 in May 2021, the prime minister Scott Morrison was appointed to five additional portfolios,” Albanese said.

“This is a sad indictment of not just Mr Morrison, but all those cabinet colleagues of his who sat back and allowed this to happen.”

Albanese stated when Morrison was appointed minister for the various portfolios in addition to being sworn in as Prime Minister: 

Department of Health: March 14, 2020

Department of Finance: March 30, 2020

Department of Home Affairs and Department of the Treasury: May 6, 2021

Department of Industry, Science Energy and Resources: April 15, 2021

Albanese said the Morrison Government had “deliberately undermined the checks and balances that are so important and essential for our democracy.”

“He told us he was a bulldozer, and his Coalition colleagues just shrugged their shoulders and cheered him on, not in one election but in two elections,” he said.

“Turns out, he was the world’s first stealth bulldozer.

“Operating in secret, keeping the operations of the government from the Australian people themselves.

“And misleading parliament as to who was holding what portfolios and who was responsible.”

Karen Andrews, who served as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology from 2018-2021 and Minister for Home Affairs from 2021 to 2022 has called for Morrison to resign.

She told The Sydney Morning Herald she was not aware of Morrison’s self-appointments.

“I did not know. When it was all unfolding over the last 24 hours I wondered if Home Affairs would come up for no reason other than he had launched himself into a range of portfolios,” she said.

“I had nothing from him, nothing from PMO, no knowledge.

It is absolutely time for him to resign from parliament this is unacceptable.

Talking to 2GB radio prior to Albanese’s press conference this morning, Morrison said he took on the portfolios because of the pandemic.

“We had to take some extraordinary measures to put safeguards in place,” he said.

“Importantly, none of these, in the case of the finance and the health portfolios, ever were required to be used.

“They were there as a safeguard, they were there as a redundancy because both the powers in those portfolios weren’t overseen by cabinet, and the ministers themselves, in both cases, had powers that few ministers in our federation’s history were having.”

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