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Dutton to speak soon

We are also expecting a press conference with opposition leader Peter Dutton very soon. I’ll bring you what he has to say once he steps up.

Paul Karp

Greens to push to refer Scott Morrison to privileges committee

The Greens are calling for Scott Morrison to be referred to the privileges committee to consider whether being appointed to ministries without telling parliament could amount to contempt or misleading parliament.

The party’s attorney general spokesperson, David Shoebridge, told Guardian Australia the creation of “secret ministries” is an “attack on parliamentary accountability”.

He said:

Parliament can’t hold a minister to account if we don’t know a ministry exists … In the Senate, Simon Birmingham would have been answering questions as the finance minister when it turns out there was also a secret finance minister. How can you hold them to account if you don’t know who they are?

Shoebridge also noted that currently only the department of the prime minister and cabinet is looking into the issue – the same department that would have advised Morrison on the arrangement. “This can’t be the only place we do this investigation,” he said.

Shoebridge confirmed the Greens are currently seeking advice on how to refer Morrison to the privileges committee. At a press conference at noon he will also reiterate calls for a national anticorruption body.

Benita Kolovos

Raise the age petition to be delivered to Victorian parliament

A petition signed by more than 65,000 Victorians to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 has been handed to crossbench MP Fiona Patten on the steps of parliament.

The petition is part of a national campaign to raise the age, which last year saw the attorneys general of all Australian states and territories agree to move toward raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. That step has been criticised as too small by justice advocates, who say raising the age to 12 will have a minimal impact on youth imprisonment rates.

Across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, remanded in custody, convicted by the courts and jailed. Indigenous children are disproportionately affected and make up the vast majority of imprisoned children.

Across the country, 211,670 people have signed the petition to raise the age.

Patten told reporters:

I’m just incredibly honoured to be the person that will deliver this petition to the Victorian attorney general … about raising the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria. We are out of step with the rest of the world.

We know that the earlier a child brushes up against the justice system, the more likely they are to continually brush against the justice system. We know that Aboriginal children are so overrepresented in our juvenile justice system [and] that this is going to affect them more than anyone else.

In all of the inquiries that I have done [I’ve found] disadvantage is at the core of this and this will go some way towards changing it.

Patten chairs a parliamentary committee which earlier this year recommended the Victorian government raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14.

She said it would help divert children into social services rather than “trapping” them in the criminal justice system from an early age.

The state’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, told reporters her priority is reducing youth offending:

There’s no point raising the age to 12, 13, 14 and just delaying the justice system’s response to that particular child. We’re dealing with really complex kids, kids that are many of them in our home care, many of them require services that we need to make sure are there as a safety net … I don’t want kids incarcerated and what I’m pleased to say that here in Victoria, right now, there are no children that are aged 11 or 12 in custody and that’s been the position for some time.

Albanese open to reforms

Albanese also indicated he’s open to a range of reforms to ensure that prime ministers in future are bound to make public announcements.

I am open to a change of reforms or suggestions.

But let’s be clear here – this isn’t business as usual. Conventions apply to the way that our democracy functions. It also is the case that the prime minister of the day tables information saying who is responsible for what.

I had a whole week off. I made it clear and put out a statement that Richard Marles would be acting as prime minister last week. It’s important that people know who is in charge at any particular time.

People of Cook deserve an MP interested in democracy and day-to-day politics, Albanese says

Albanese was also asked if Scott Morrison be considering his position as the member for Cook. His recent comments that he is not interested in day-to-day politics come off the back of his telling people at a Perth church not to trust governments.

Albanese said:

His speech where he said that he didn’t have trust in government. It’s not surprising given that he knew the nature of the government that he ran. And the others who sat around that cabinet table and allowed these circumstances to occur.

So, Mr Morrison has also said that he doesn’t take, doesn’t partake in day-to-day political activity. It’s a very strange comment for a member of the House of Representatives to make, and I think the people of Cook deserve to be represented by someone who is interested in our parliamentary democracy and in day-to-day politics.

Inquiry needed into the handling of the pandemic, PM affirms

Albanese has also left open the option of a royal commission into the pandemic more broadly:

I’ve said consistently that once we were through the pandemic, it would be inconceivable, regardless of who won the election in May, that you would not have a proper examination of the circumstances around the handling of the pandemic. Importantly, so that you could prepare any lessons from it. Some of those are obvious … I was in Victoria yesterday announcing the need for us to be more self-reliant with regard to pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

‘This is not business as usual’: Albanese

Albanese is asked about whether there would have been another way for Morrison to have acted in an emergency situation without having to have sworn himself into those roles:

Quite clearly, there is no explanation that satisfies the swearing in in my view … Australians will make their own judgement.

I’ll make two points that are important. One is that we and I as leader of the opposition agreed to special powers – for example for the minister for finance – to make payments in an emergency circumstance because of the pandemic.

These appointments are quite extraordinary. And this is not business as usual. And I’ll make the other point – across a range of areas, ministers have particular responsibilities that they and they alone are given.

The resources minister had particular responsibility. In that case, it was Keith Pitt. What we know is that if you look at the footage of the announcement by Scott Morrison at that time, Scott Morrison did not say that he was making it as the person who was administered to be in charge of the department of resources as well as minister Pitt. There’s a very clear reason why you do that. Because if you had two people who had contradictory positions, then that can create real issues.

Politicians, not public servants, are responsible, PM says

Albanese has emphasised that politicians, not public servants, are the ones who need to be held accountable:

Decisions here are made by politicians. They’re the ones that need to be held to account here. The politicians who made these decisions and who asked, obviously, at the time, they asked that this information be kept secret. It’s not up to public servants to release this information. It was up to the decision makers who were the elected representatives.

Albanese is asked because the appointments were a process through executive council, if at least one other cabinet minister must have known about this. He responds:

I’m not privy to that information. I’ve had a briefing this morning that each of the appointments was made under section 64. Appointments were made by the governor general following the prime minister’s recommendations.

‘I cannot conceive of the mindset that has created this’: Albanese

Moving on to questions from reporters, and Albanese has gone on to express his disbelief at the way in which the former government operated:

I cannot conceive of the mindset that has created this. I cannot conceive of the way that the government has functioned in a way where they said that ‘I’m the prime minister of Australia and I’d also like to be in charge of health, finance, treasury, industry, science, home affairs, resources.’ I cannot conceive of how that occurs.

And I cannot conceive of how a cabinet allows that to happen. I also cannot conceive of how a cabinet committee of one is established. And that’s an issue that we’ve been raising for a period of time. I also cannot conceive of the way that this prime minister, when he was in charge, consistently avoided scrutiny. Consistently avoided scrutiny.

These are serious issues. Serious issues, and the fact that Scott Morrison spent a considerable period of time dismissing things that were fact, as gossip. The fact that he dealt with publicly, what should be publicly available information in the way that he did, and his cabinet colleagues supported this operating odd as the government for four years.

Albanese has gone on to condemn the implications that flow from these appointments, including the text messages sent out ahead of the election.

There are real implications for this. For example, of what the events on May 21 were. Because there we’ve asked questions about the role of the then minister for home affairs, and the announcement by the person we thought was just the prime minister, but we know was also responsible for administering the Department of Home Affairs during that shocking breach of government policy and the abuse of the information that was put out there with text messages to millions of Australians in order to try to pervert the result of the election on May 21.

He has said the situation is an indictment of Morrison as well as “all those cabinet colleagues of his, who sat back and allowed this to happen”.

This is a sad indictment. Of not just Mr Morrison, but all those Cabinet colleagues of his, who sat back and allowed this to happen. It’s undermined our democracy. It’s an attack on the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy as we know it. And not just Mr Morrison, but others, who were involved in this, need to be held to account in the former Morrison government.

Advice on legality expected next Monday

Albanese explains how Morrison’s extra appointments were made and says he is seeking further legal advice on the use of these powers.

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.

Anthony Albanese says Scott 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.