Why were Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries kept secret from most of the ministers involved, from the Parliament and from Australians? On that subject, the greatest liar ever to hold prime ministerial office in Australia seems determined to go out with one final whopper.
According to the report by former High Court judge Virginia Bell AC, “responsibility for the failure to notify the public and the Parliament of the making of these appointments rests with Mr Morrison and not the governor-general or the office of the official secretary to the governor-general”.
Nor did it rest with Prime Minister and Cabinet: “PM&C has never arranged for the publication in the Gazette of ministerial appointments. PM&C views it as within the prerogative of the prime minister to announce the composition of, or changes to, the ministry.”
What does Morrison say? Well, not much, because his involvement with the inquiry consisted of writing letters to Bell, through his lawyer Clutz partner Ashley Tsacalos, (one of which lectured her that she should not “draw conclusions based on incomplete information available … in relation to issues of national security and national interest generally”.)
Morrison, through his lawyer, told Bell his public statements and Facebook posts were answers to her questions. In those statements, Morrison said he didn’t want ministers second-guessing themselves so he kept Mathias Cormann, Josh Frydenberg and Karen Andrews in the dark, and he didn’t want the public to know because it would be “misinterpreted and misunderstood, which would have caused unnecessary angst”.
Morrison should have left it there. But consistent with his long history of lying even when he doesn’t have to, he then went further. On November 4, Tsacalos wrote to Bell to tell her Morrison’s memory has been jogged.
We can confirm that neither Mr Morrison nor his office instructed PM&C not to gazette the appointments, nor was he or his office consulted on whether the appointments should be published in the Gazette. These decisions, like all such matters, were left to PM&C to determine in accordance with what they considered to be the usual practice. Mr Morrison also assumed the usual practice would apply following the relevant ministerial appointments.
But what did Morrison think was the “usual practice”? Bell asked Tsacalos, and Tsacalos wrote back: “At the time of the appointments, the subject of the inquiry, Mr Morrison, had no reason to understand otherwise than that PM&C’s usual practice was to arrange publication in the Gazette of the names of the ministers and the offices they held — irrespective of whether a minister was sworn in at Government House or not. Naturally, he expected that this usual practice would be followed.”
That was a clear sign that Morrison was lying. And just to make it clearer, the lawyer added:
The public statements by Mr Morrison were directed to the fact that he did not inform all relevant ministers or members of the public of the ministerial appointments by way of media release or public statement. However, this in no way suggests that he did not expect that the usual practice would apply and that PM&C would publish the appointments in the Gazette.
This statement makes zero sense. If Morrison didn’t want ministers to know he’d been sworn into their portfolios, as he said, that’s utterly inconsistent with his professed belief that in fact the appointments would be gazetted by PM&C as “the usual practice”.
As Bell notes: “Mr Morrison’s assumption that all the appointments were notified to the public in the Gazette is not easy to reconcile with his conduct at the time or with his public statements when the appointments came to light.”
In fact, it’s utterly implausible that Morrison both thought the appointments would be gazetted and that the relevant ministers would remain unaware.
Ditto the public. Morrison said he didn’t want to make the appointments public because it would alarm the public and would be “misinterpreted”, but also that he expected the appointments to be made public via the Gazette.
In Bell’s words: “While few members of the public may read the Gazette, any idea that the gazettal of the prime minister’s appointment to administer the treasury (or any of the other appointments) would not be picked up and quickly circulated within the public service and the Parliament strikes me as improbable in the extreme. Finally, Mr Morrison was repeatedly pressed at his press conference on 17 August 2022 about his failure not only to inform his ministers but also to inform the public of the appointments. The omission on that occasion to state that he had acted at all times on the assumption that each appointment had been notified to the public in the Gazette is striking.”
Striking is one word. Blatant falsehood is another.
Morrison as prime minister never knew when to stop lying. It seems he still doesn’t.
Should Scott Morrison be forced to resign? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
