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Advice from the Solicitor-General expected next Monday

Albanese goes on following the announcement Morrison was appointed to five additional portfolios:

Each of these appointments made under section 64 of the Constitution. It is completely extraordinary that these appointments were kept secret by the Morrison. It is completely contradictory, too, for example, the questions that ministers answered on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. You ask questions of ministers who are responsible for portfolios. The Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition tabled in Parliament a list of portfolios and who is responsible for what. And the implications are still being worked through. We know that there is a legal matter in the issue of resources. I am seeking further advice as to the use of these extraordinary powers by Scott Morrison and other examples of it.

And we’ll be receiving a briefing. I’ve asked for advice from the Solicitor-General and I’m advised that that will be ready next Monday, which I think is August 22, or thereabouts, of this month. What has occurred here is also a flow-on, I believe, from the fact that Mr Morrison’s colleagues sat back and watched power be centralised within the Morrison government. They ticked off on the arrangements that had Scott Morrison as the only member of a Cabinet committee. Now, that was in place for some period of time. Once you go down that road of creating a Cabinet committee with one member on it, so as to avoid scrutiny that it’s not surprising that further steps will made. First of all, in the area of health, but then it continued through health, finance, treasury, energy, resources, Home Affairs and more.

Albanese says Morrison was appointed to five additional ministries, including treasury and home affairs:

I can say that today, I have been informed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that between March 2020 in May 2021, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison was appointed to five additional portfolios.

In addition to his appointment as the head of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

He was appointed to administer the Department of Health on the 14 March 2020.

The Department of Finance on the 30 March 2020.

The Department of Home Affairs on the 6 May 2021.

The Department of the Treasury on six May 2021.

And the Department of Industry, science energy and resources on the 15 April 2021.

Albanese holds press conference, calling Morrison ‘the world’s first stealth bulldozer’

The prime minister Anthony Albanese has stepped up to speak in Canberra about the revelations about the former prime minister Scott Morrison’s appointment to several ministerial portfolios in secret.

Albanese describes the moves as an “unprecedented trashing of our democracy” and labels Morrison “the world’s first stealth bulldozer”.

He begins:

There have been revelations of an extraordinary and unprecedented trashing of our democracy by the former Morrison government. This has been government by deception.

I used to say that Scott Morrison had two jobs as Prime Minister and he botched them both. It turns out I was wrong about there being just two jobs.

He told us he was a bulldozer and his Coalition colleagues just shrugged their shoulders and cheered him on, not in one election but in two elections. Turns out, he was the world’s first stealth bulldozer. Operating in secret, keeping the operations of the government from the Australian people themselves. A misleading parliament as to who was holding what portfolios and who was responsible.

Our democracy is precious. We should be very proud of the democracy we have put created here in Australia. But the Westminster system relies upon checks and balances. The former government, Scott Morrison and others who were involved in this, deliberately undermined those checks and balances that are so important and essential for our democracy.

Queensland has recorded 17 Covid deaths and 3,232 new cases in the latest reporting period, with 487 people in hospital and 23 people in intensive care.

PM to speak shortly

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will step up for a press conference in Canberra at any moment.

He is expected to make comments after a briefing this morning about former prime minister Scott Morrison’s appointment to cabinet positions in secret.

Albanese told ABC Radio earlier this morning:

This morning I expect to receive more detail on how this occurred. Because this is totally contrary to our Westminster system. It may well be that it takes some time to get to the bottom of this. After all, we have had revelations come out just in the last 72 hours. We will put out information publicly and transparently.

He later told ABC Melbourne that after his briefing “if there are more details to be revealed that the Australian people are entitled to know, I’ll certainly be doing so”.

Peter Hannam

Consumer sentiment picks up despite rate rises

Shoppers seem to be struggling off the Reserve Bank of Australia’s August rate rise, at least if the past week’s survey by ANZ and Roy Morgan is a useful guide.

Consumer confidence rose 4.9%, more than reversing the drop in the week of the latest rate rise.

David Plank, ANZ’s head of Australian economics, said the pickup in sentiment “speaks to the strength of the labour market, which we expect to be confirmed by the data due later this week”.

On Thursday we get July labour force data and an update of the 3.5% jobless rate posted in June, in particular. Another drop will add to consumer confidence but make the RBA more twitchy when it comes to how fast and how high to lift interest rates.

The latest indication about consumer expectations – something else of interest to the RBA – rose in the past week but remained steady on a four-week rolling average.

Plank, though, says the ANZ is not “getting carried away”.

“Sentiment toward ‘future financial conditions’ is still well below average and overall confidence is deeply negative,” he said.

Work safety watchdog bans ACT parliamentary hearings, sparking constitutional dispute

ACT’s safety watchdog has shut down the territory’s parliamentary hearings, after finding it lacked social distancing and adequate plans to prevent the spread of Covid-19, ABC is reporting.

Markus Mannheim reports:

The inspector ordered the shut-down on Friday afternoon, though the assembly continued with hearings on Monday morning — in apparent defiance of the notice — before later adjourning.

Assembly Speaker Joy Burch said the decision had “deep constitutional significance”, and threatened to take the matter to the ACT Supreme Court.

Burch has written a letter to the ACT Work Health and Safety Commissioner Jacqueline Agius, which said the timing prevented the estimates committee from scrutinising budget spending was “particularly egregious”. She wrote:

The terms of the notice are profoundly misconceived as a matter of law, represent a grave threat to the privileges of the assembly, and could quite possibly amount to a contempt of the assembly.

The action taken by you cuts directly across the separation of powers between the legislative and executive arms of government and, on its face, seeks to up-end the exclusive cognisance of the assembly to exercise control over its proceedings.

Flood warning in Victoria’s east

Victorians from Yallourn to Traralgon in the state’s Gippsland region are being warned to move to higher ground ahead of moderate flooding.

Hobart council to remove divisive statue of former premier

A contentious statue of a former Tasmanian premier who mutilated the body of an Aboriginal man in 1869 will be taken down by the Hobart City Council.

William Crowther, a surgeon and politician, stole the skull of William Lanne from a morgue and sent it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

Crowther was suspended from a position at the Hobart General Hospital as a result. He became premier briefly nine years later.

Hobart City Council on Monday night voted 7-4 to remove the statue from Franklin Square in the capital’s CBD after years of campaigning from Aboriginal groups.

Lord mayor Anna Reynolds described it as a practical and meaningful step to reconciliation and one part of a broader national conversation. She told the meeting:

(This) does not change history. The records, the books, the articles, the stories all remain unchanged .

We don’t want to celebrate a time in our history when scientists and doctors wanted to prove theories of European superiority (and) wanted to rank people by their race.

It was an appalling tradition.

Reynolds said the statue would be conserved and potentially reinterpreted. The meeting was told preliminary discussions had been held with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

– via AAP

Peter Hannam

Tasmanian electricity interconnector stops imports

Tasmania is usually blessed with an abundance of electricity given its hydro resources in particular, as well as its Basslink interconnector with the mainland to fill any short term gap.

It may not be a big deal but Basslink (in receivership since last November) apparently ceased imports this morning (just before 6am AEST and that remains the case).

Without those imports, spot wholesale electricity prices in the NEM were notably higher recently (though the gap has now closed) than the mainland states.

The power interruption, if that’s what it is (we’ve asked), makes it worthwhile to look at the state of Tasmania’s hydro resources. The climate drivers (mostly La Nina and a negative Indian Ocean dipole) that have been pushing extra moisture into much of eastern Australia have not been benefitting western Tasmania.

One consequence is the biggest dam in the Hydro Tasmania system is well below full levels, prompting the state-run company last week to note “the total energy in storage dropped below the Prudent Storage Level” briefly.

As our colleague Adam Morton noted in 2016 (in a different role), drought and Basslink woes prompted the Tassie government to resort to cloud seeding and diesel generators to keep the lights on.

A very long way off that, of course, but a reminder of the complexity (and vulnerability) of our energy supplies.

Victoria has recorded 20 Covid deaths and 4,858 new cases in the latest reporting period, with 535 people in hospital and 25 in intensive care.

New South Wales has recorded 24 Covid deaths and 7,145 new cases in the latest reporting period, with 2,141 people in hospital and 60 people in intensive care.

‘Our democracy, frankly, deserve better’: Albanese on Morrison’s secret powers

The prime minister Anthony Albanese followed his ABC Radio interview with another on ABC Melbourne, which came hot on the heels of Scott Morrison’s air time on 2GB.

Virginia Trioli asked Albanese about Morrison’s response saying the arrangements were fine as, quote, “The buck stops with me as prime minister”.

Albanese said Morrison was not right “because on issues like resources, that the buck actually stops with the resources minister under legislation to make particular decisions”.

We don’t have a one-person band here. What we have is a government that has inbuilt checks and balances. And that’s why this is such a breach of convention. It’s a breach of processes. And it is typical of someone who, of course, set up a cabinet committee of one so that he could have meetings with various people and say that it was a meeting of that subcommittee of the cabinet.

It would appear that the former government went out of its way to hide information and to be to have a lack of transparency. No wonder they objected to having a national anti-corruption commission. This went to the very nature in the heart of the Coalition government that governed for a period of time and simply lost any perspective about accountability to the Australian people on the way through, that operated in the shadows. And Australians deserve better. And our democracy, frankly, deserve better as well.

Trioli also asked Albanese about the reports that also came through during the ABC Melbourne interview that Morrison was also secretly sworn into the social services portfolio.

Albanese said he was not aware “of that particular detail”. He said he would be receiving a briefing this morning and will “have more to say later this morning.”