It is less than a fortnight since it was publicly revealed that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to five key ministerial portfolios, in an unprecedented power-grab arrogating vast, unchecked powers to the executive branch of government.
Scott Morrison and David Hurley (Photos: AP/Kiyoshi Ota, Office of the Governor-General of Australia)
In the 121 years of Australian parliamentary democracy, no directly comparable action has been undertaken by a sitting prime minister. Under conditions of a turn to authoritarian forms of rule internationally, epitomised by Donald Trump’s attempted coup in the United States, Morrison’s appointments contain the unmistakable whiff of dictatorship.
And yet it has taken less than two weeks for the entire Australian political and media establishment to declare the issue more or less dead and buried. Coverage of the Morrison affair is well off the newspaper front pages and has slowed to a trickle.
The myriad unanswered questions are almost entirely ignored.
What was the relationship between the turn to extra-parliamentary forms of rule, and the policies enacted by the government?
Was there a relationship between Morrison’s actions and global developments, including Australia’s close ties to Britain and the US, and the prime minister’s own affinity for Trump?
Was there an overarching plan to Morrison’s assumption of sweeping powers, for instance, considerations of the declaration of an “emergency,” the complete suspension of parliamentary democracy and rule by prime ministerial decree?
Many other questions could be added, but they are not being asked.
The first week after the ministerial appointments were made public was dominated by an official line depicting them as solely the result of Morrison’s personal proclivities, and even psychological tendencies.
Since then, however, it has become crystal clear that Morrison was acting in concert with state agencies, and that his appointments were an open secret within the political establishment.
It was revealed on Monday, for instance, that Morrison’s first secret portfolio, the health ministry, was handed to him by the National Security Committee of Cabinet, which included current Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton and National Party leader Michael McCormack. Most of the media has pretended not to see this information or have responded with a disinterested shrug of the shoulders.
The current Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played the linchpin role in trying to dampen down public anger over the revelations and to move on to next business.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Photo: Twitter / @AlboMP)
On Tuesday, Albanese publicly announced that Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue had examined Morrison’s appointments and found that they were not in breach of the Constitution.
