One of the unspoken rules of Australian politics is that most of the rules are unspoken. A chap should know who the chaps trust because in order to be a chap, one needs to be someone whom the chaps trust. Likewise, a lady should carry herself like a lady because in order to be a lady, one needs to be someone whom the ladies trust. All of this has gone out of the window, now that we have decided that truth, justice, trust, and the gentle art of being noble, are all worthless. Now what we have, is the naked manipulation of power for power's sake; sprinkled with what ever words of religion and/or values sound good enough to get past the general public, whom we assume are idiots. It certainly hasn't helped that great swathes of the general public are actually idiots and will accept what ever words of religion and/or values are thrown at them.
The great Australian public, gradually awoke from its stupor this morning to learn that the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, ordered an investigation into his immediate predecessor Scott Morrison. News Corporation toed the line that it is running in the United States and suggested that this was a politically motivated witch hunt until about 11am when we found out the reason why.
It seems that as Prime Minister, Scott Morrison was secretly sworn in as the joint minister for three cabinet portfolios, during the time when many of us were in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has come to light that Prime Minister, Scott Morrison was secretly by the appointed by Governor-General David Hurley as a 'joint minister' for the Departments of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. This was roughly about eleven months before as Prime Minister, he personally made the call against an offshore gas project, about six weeks out before the General Election.
As I understand it, the current Prime Minster, Anthony Albanese, was only alerted to this state of affairs because he'd read about it in Saturday's edition of The Australian. From what I can gather, Morrison was also appointed to the role of joint Health Minister; to which Greg Hunt agreed as kind of a backstop in case he contracted Coronavirus and was unable to do the job. Also from what I can gather Morrison was also appointed to the role of joint Finance Minister; though in that case the then-finance minister Matthias Cormann was not told at all.
The question being thrown about tonight (being Monday the 15th when all of this is coming to light), is "is this legal?" and perhaps more seriously "is this a coup against the Crown". I can answer both of those questions.
Ministers of State
The Governor-General may appoint officers to administer such departments of State of the Commonwealth as the Governor-General in Council may establish.
Such officers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General. They shall be members of the Federal Executive Council, and shall be the Queen's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth.
Ministers to sit in Parliament
After the first general election no Minister of State shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.
- Section 64 of the Constitution Act (1900)
Assuming that everything that we have heard about this so far is true, then the Governor-General David Hurley, has pretty much full discretion to appoint literally anyone he likes in the world, to the position of cabinet minister. Section 64 makes no mention of the qualification of who those ministers are, or of the nature of the posts.
Is it legal that the Governor-General appoint Scott Morrison to multiple cabinet posts? Yes. Is this normal? Not really. The law does not care for what is normal. "Normal" is whatever the current convention is for "normal" until such time as it changes.
Believe it or not, there is precedent for a Prime Minster holding multiple cabinet positions. From the 5th of December 1972 for about six weeks, Gough Whitlam and Lance Barnard were the entire cabinet in a duumvirate; with Whitlam being 'Minister for Everything' and Barnard being 'Minister for Everything Else'. The big difference between that and this current set of circumstances is that Whitlam and Barnard were very public about the arrangement; with wall to wall coverage across print, radio and television. Morrison's grubby little scheme has been known about by practically nobody outside of the immediate circles of government.
Is this a coup against the Crown? No. If the Governor-General David Hurley has made the appointment of Scott Morrison to those several cabinet posts, then he is not only acting in his capacity as the Governor-General but as an officer of the Crown.
While this is not a coup against the Crown, it very much is a subversion of democracy. One of the unspoken rules of Australian politics is that we the people of Australia should have the right to know what our government is doing and at very least, know who is in charge of executive cabinet. The chaps and ladies of the land should be able to trust the chaps at the very top because in order to be a chap, one needs to be someone whom the chaps trust. We can safely say that today, we should absolutely not trust the Governor General.
The reason that we should absolutely not trust the Governor General is because we now know that he is not a chap. The Governor General should be a chap whom we know nothing about whatsoever. In Australia, the only time that anyone has known anything about the Governor General is when something so cataclysmically stupid has happened that it leaves scars on the fabric of democracy itself.
I think that this is a similar abuse of the role of the Governor General to Kerr’s disgraceful sacking of the Whitlam Labor government. If that wasn't bad enough Hurley also lobbied the Morrisons government on various matters (which is a second abuse of the role) and the same Prime Minister promised $18 million to a fly-by-night pop-up "charity" supported by the Governor General; which had no real street address, no searchable history and no published plan for what to do with the monies. Although having said that, given the awful history of the Liberal Party and the fact that he was a Liberal Party appointee, it might be more shocking if he was actually ethical.
Morrison is gone from the role of Prime Minister but being a knave and a crook is not sufficiently good enough reason to remove him from the seat of Cook. However, for the Governor General to secretly swear-in a Prime Minister to the posts of various joint cabinet ministries and then not tell the general public, is all kinds of knavery.
As the Governor General is not a chap whom the ladies and chaps can trust, the Governor General is not a chap. As such, the Governor General must resign today, if not sooner.
No comments:
Post a Comment