Posted on 08/17/2022 8:31:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
SYDNEY, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Australia's former prime minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday he decided to be secretly sworn in to five key ministries during the coronavirus pandemic because he felt responsibility for the nation was his alone.
Morrison, who stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party after losing a general election in May, addressed a news conference to answer a barrage of criticism from the Labor government and his own party over the unprecedented assumption of powers.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Last week this would have been a crazy conspiracy theory.
Not because each ministry pays $30,000AU on top of your base legislative salary.
No, no.
You did it to serve your country.
Now who runs Australia? I believe it’s even worse!
Sad, but true.
Wow. What a self-important dork.
Anthony Albanese was elected Prime Minister of Australia in 2022.[1]
Climate change is his top priority.[2] Also removing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state is on the agenda.[3]
He has appointed more women to the cabinet than ever before; including two WEF/Young Global Leaders, Clare O’Neil and Anne Aly.[4]
Before anyone else weighs in, just as an FYI the Liberal Party that this guy led in Australia is the party of conservatives. The Labor Party that ousted him is the actual liberals.
Well… we WERE all wondering about what was going on
He wasn’t paid any extra for this. And what he did was entirely constitutional and other Prime Ministers have done similar before.
This is only a news story because the left wing media want to use it to bash a conservative.
It wasn’t a secret.
There is a difference between something being secret and just not bothering to have a news conference about an emergency contingency plan you never expect to use.
The only slightly questionable thing about this is that he did use the powers on one occasion, when it’s not really clear it was necessary - but even then, there may have been a good reason for it.
The Labor Party is doing its best to turn this into a major constitutional scandal, and a lot of the media is helping them. At most, it’s a fairly minor issue.
I’m glad that he didn’t get paid, because that’s usually the reason why a government minister will head up as many ministries as he can handle.
It makes think a bit higher of him.
I like it when I read a principled politician, because they are so rare in any country.
In March 2020, early in the Pandemic, with the hysterical reporting that was appearing in the world's media, nobody was sure how bad COVID might actually be. So the question was raised as to whether 475 should be put into effect. The Prime Minister took the position that if 475 was put into effect, he, as Prime Minister should be the one with the power to administer it if needed. Using Section 64 of the Constitution, he asked the Governor-General to appoint him as a second Minister for Health - it is unusual for a ministry to be held by more than one person but it is constitutional and it isn't unprecedented.
The intent behind this was twofold - one, it would allow the Prime Minister to overrule the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, if he felt Hunt was going too far if 475 was invoked. It put ultimate power in the hands of the Prime Minister. It also meant that if Hunt became incapacitated, there was a continuity of government plan in place - the Prime Minister could immediately take over.
The Prime Minister later decided to have himself appointed to other critical ministries to ensure the same continuity of government issue. He had no intention of exercising any of these powers unless a Minister became incapacitated.
None of this was secret - none of it was classified in any way. It just wasn't publically announced. Maybe it should have been but, frankly, it would have been more likely to cause panic than anything else. And the powers in those critical ministries were never actually used, which does support the idea that he only intended them to be used in an emergency.
The one odd ball in this case, where it can be argued there was no real need for him to have himself appointed as a second Minister for Industry, Science and Resources - there really are no critical functions of that Ministry that require this level of contingency planning (a new Minister could be appointed in a matter of hours under more traditional approaches). And that is the only Ministry where he actually used the powers - he refused permission for some natural gas exploration to take place. The decision was certainly legal and constitutional - but that one can certainly be reasonably questioned as to why it needed to be done in an unusual way.
Section 475 and Section 476 were in fact used during COVID to set up a situation where the Minister for Health's Biosecurity powers under Section 477, 478, and 479 were used - those are the sections that basically turn the Minister for Health into, more or less, a dictator (they contain language like "During a human biosecurity emergency period, the Health Minister may give any direction, to any person, that the Health Minister is satisfied is necessary".) Those sections were not invoked.
Section 474 states that the powers can only be exercised by a Minister of Heath - nobody else - which is why the Prime Minister felt it was necessary that he be designated as Minister of Health.
I should have looked up the precise sections before posting, rather than going on memory but the media has been talking about 475 as if it was the primary relevant section, and I, wrongly, assumed they were accurately citing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.