PM weighs up a Morrison probe

The legal advice from the ­ Solicitor-General, Stephen Donaghue, found that Mr Morrison had not acted unlawfully or undermined the Constitution in asking Governor-General David Hurley to grant him administrative powers over eight portfolios during the pandemic.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday announced a wide-ranging inquiry led by an eminent legal expert to investigate “what ­happened and how it happened” and committed to fast-tracking changes that will force public disclosure of all future ministerial ­appointments.

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Mr Morrison said he was willing to co-operate with a “genuine process to learn the lessons from the pandemic” and pressured Mr Albanese to launch a probe into decisions made by state and territory governments.

With Labor governments in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia likely to come under scrutiny from a broader Covid-19 inquiry, Mr Morrison said: “I would expect that any credible processes would also extend to the actions of the states and ­territories.”

Mr Albanese is expected to finalise the terms of reference for the Morrison inquiry in coming days, which will outline whether former ministers, staffers and ­bureaucrats could be compelled to appear.

The inquiry will examine Mr Morrison’s secret moves to ­appoint himself across multiple portfolios – including Treasury, home affairs, resources, health and finance – as well as the approval of grants and decisions made by ­government-owned companies.

“I want this to be quite an expeditious inquiry. I don’t want this to drag on. I want to get conclusions and then act on them,” Mr Albanese said.

“It needs to be not a political inquiry but an inquiry with an eminent person with a legal background to consider all of the ­implications.”

Asked about a separate inquiry into decisions made by all governments during the Covid-19 crisis, Mr Albanese said that would occur only “when we are confident that we are on the other side of the pandemic”.

“There will be a need to examine what went right, what went wrong, how issues could be improved in the future and we will give consideration to that at an appropriate later time,” he said.

In response to Mr Donaghue’s advice, which assessed Mr Morrison’s self-appointment to administer the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in April last year, Mr Morrison said the Solicitor-General found his decisions were “valid”.

“In hindsight, some of these decisions will be reflected upon now and lessons learned.

“The ­Solicitor-General has noted a number of these points from his perspective in his advice and I am sure this will help guide any changes in these areas,” Mr Morrison said.

“I’ve reflected further on these matters over the past week. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised in relation to these matters and regret any offence caused.”

Senior Coalition sources said the Morrison inquiry was “clearly a political witch hunt” and releasing the legal advice, which Mr Albanese said was a “one-off”, had set a precedent for the Prime ­Minister.

Mr Albanese has directed his department to work with the ­office of the Governor-General to “adopt a practice of publishing in the Commonwealth Gazette ­future appointments of ministers to administer departments”.

Peter Dutton will work with Mr Albanese on “reasonable pro­posals” or legislative changes to improve transparency around ­future disclosures of ministerial appointments.

“The Solicitor-General confirmed that the appointments were validly made but proposed various mechanisms by which practices could in future be improved,” opposition legal affairs spokesman Julian Leeser said.

“The opposition will work with the government on any reasonable proposals to provide clarity to processes and improve ­transparency in ministerial ­appointments.”

Mr Donaghue cleared the Governor-General of impro­priety, finding General Hurley had no discretion to refuse Mr Morrison’s ministerial requests.

“In circumstances where Mr Morrison clearly advised the Governor-General to appoint him to administer DISER, and given that the appointment of a minister to administer multiple departments is not unlawful … it would have been a clear breach of the applicable conventions for the Governor-General to decline to accept and act upon the prime minister’s advice,” he said.

Mr Donaghue said after Mr Morrison was appointed to administer DISER under section 64 of the Constitution, “no change was made to the ministry list which is tabled in parliament and no gazettal was pursued”.

“While I consider that Mr Morrison’s appointment to administer DISER was valid, that is not to say the absence of any notification of that appointment to the parliament, the public, the other ministers administering DISER or DISER itself was consistent with the principle of responsible government that is inherent in … the Constitution,” he said.

“In my opinion, it was not.

“The end result is that, to the extent that the public and the parliament are not informed of appointments … made under s64 of the Constitution, the principles of responsible government are funda­mentally undermined.”

Chief Political Correspondent

Australia

Geoff Chambers is The Australian’s Chief Political Correspondent. He was previously The Australian’s Canberra Bureau Chief and Queensland Bureau Chief. Before joining the national broadsheet he was News Editor … Read more

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