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The Australian media’s sustained attention on the many ministries of Scott Morrison is good for democracy. It needs to call for a royal commission — now.
Peter Dutton has called the reaction to Scott Morrison’s secret ministries “hysterical”, and he’s not alone. While former senator Amanda Vanstone thinks Morrison’s moves don’t pass the pub test, and some of ScoMo’s secretly shadowed ministers have made their indignation plain, ex-PM John Howard disagreed, claiming the issue was not so “reeking in principle” as to warrant any action that would harm the Liberal Party. Former Nationals’ leader Barnaby Joyce dismissed the scandal as “hyperventilation” by the political classes given “there was nothing illegal done”.
In fact, there may have been illegal things done. Look no further than former Liberal leader and top silk Malcolm Turnbull’s musings on Twitter about whether exercise of statutory ministerial powers is lawful if their exercise is conducted in secret.
Can a person exercise the statutory powers of a Minister under a statute if their appointment to that ministry is secret? Doesn’t our fundamental democratic values mean that in order for a person to exercise the power of “the Minister” they must be publicly declared as such?
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 18, 2022
But even if the only thing shattered in the Many Ministerial Faces of Morrison affair are democratic “principles,” “norms” or “values”, that is enough. Enough to show something terrible happened that needs to be identified and redressed.
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