THE SQUIZ
The Albanese Government is seeking advice on the legality of former PM Scott Morrison’s appointment as a joint minister in the Health, Finance, and Industry, Science, Energy and Resources portfolios. Calling the secret arrangements “just weird” and “very contrary to our Westminster system”, PM Anthony Albanese said it was unacceptable for his predecessor to keep Australians in the dark about who had what powers in the government. Governor-General David Hurley’s office yesterday confirmed that there weren’t a series of hushed-up swearing-in ceremonies – he simply signed the paperwork to give Morrison authority over those departments. “The decision whether to publicise appointments to administer additional portfolios is a matter for the government of the day,” the statement said. As for the man himself, Morrison says he had nothing to add because he’s not “engaged in any day-to-day politics”.

WHAT’S THAT ABOUT?
The first part of this story broke in the Weekend Australian (paywall) on Saturday. And the story goes that Morrison put himself down to administer the Health portfolio if required in March 2020. That ensured a continuity plan if then-Health Minister Greg Hunt got sick. And it put safeguards in place for the big emergency powers given to the Health Minister, including the ability to introduce martial law. Hunt is said to have been aware of the move, but it wasn’t publicly disclosed. Also not announced – even to then Finance Minister Mathias Cormann – the appointment to his portfolio. Again, it was said to be a contingency measure to keep the money flowing if something happened to the guy in charge. But as we turned the corner into yesterday, details of a 3rd appointment emerged…

A THIRD APPOINTMENT?
Yep. Morrison was also secretly appointed joint Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Minister in April last year – which had nothing to do with the pandemic response… It gave Morrison the power to kill off a proposal for an offshore oil and gas project between Manly and Newcastle. He did that against Resources Minister Keith Pitt’s wishes in December after it became political poison for Liberals in the area who hoped to win/hold their seats in the federal election. Yesterday, Pitt said it was “clearly something I was concerned about, as you would expect.” He wasn’t the only one – several of Morrison’s colleagues and opponents say his way of wielding political power was wrong. “This is dripping out like a tap that needs a washer fixed and what we need is actually to get the full flow of all the information out there, and then we’ll make a decision about a way forward here,” PM Albanese said.