Scott Morrison said Wednesday that when he was Prime Minister of Australia, he needed to be given special powers during the coronavirus crisis.
Current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sought the Attorney General's opinion on the legality of some of Morrison's moves.
Many of Morrison's own colleagues were caught off-guard by his decision to secretly appoint five ministerial roles to Morrison, who lost to the Albanians in the general election earlier this year. Some have called for him to step down from parliament, where he is now an opposition MP.
However, while Morrison apologized to his reporters in Sydney for offending his colleagues, he stood by his actions. said there is.
Early in the COVID-19 crisis, it was expected that as prime minister, he would be responsible for "every drop of rain, every strain of the virus, everything that happened during that period." That was it. He said.
"I believed in the need for powers to be exercised in unforeseen extreme circumstances, de facto emergency powers, to enable us to act in the national interest."
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He said he would rather be criticized for exceeding standards than for inaction. Morrison said his move may have been misunderstood when asked why he had not informed his Cabinet colleagues about the appointment, let alone the general public. , was concerned that these issues could be misunderstood and misunderstood and undermine confidence in the performance of the ministers at the time, and did not believe it would be in the country's interest," Morrison said. rice field.
On Tuesday, Albanians revealed Morrison was appointed Minister of Health, Finance, Home Affairs, Finance and Industry between March 2020 and he May 2021. . position. News Corp media revealed several appointments scheduled for the weekend.
"It is absolutely extraordinary that these appointments were kept secret from the Australian public by the Morrison government," Albanese said.
Morrison exercised additional powers on at least one occasion to reverse former Minister Keith Pitt's decision to approve a controversial gas project off New South Wales.
In a statement, Pitt said he was unaware that Morrison was co-overseeing the cabinet's portfolio and said he supported his decision at the time.
At the time, Morrison said he was vetoing the project in his capacity as prime minister, and did not mention that he co-oversees the portfolio.
Morrison on Wednesday said that particular case had different circumstances than the pandemic-related portfolio and supported his decision, which he believed was in the national interest.
} Morrison's appointment was approved by Governor David Hurley, who said he was following a process consistent with the Constitution by signing an "administrative document on the advice of the Prime Minister" to give Morrison extra time.
Karen Andrews, who served as Home Secretary under Morrison, said Morrison never told her he was also named in the portfolio.She said Morrison should resign.
"Australia's" people have been disappointed and betrayed. That the former prime minister behaved that way, secretly taking oaths to other portfolios, is not known to West. To undermine Minster's system. That is absolutely unacceptable."
