Scott Morrison has said he didn’t immediately apologise for having himself secretly sworn in to multiple ministries because he didn’t want to be caught up in the “political circus” of criticism.
The former prime minister reportedly made the remarks in an interview with Sky News to be aired on Monday evening, after the Greens signalled they will pursue a censure motion for allegedly misleading parliament.
On Monday the speaker, Milton Dick, told the House of Representatives he would not grant an urgent debate on Morrison’s ministries because a complaint from the Greens lacks evidence that he had deliberately misled the house.
The Albanese government has established an inquiry led by former high court justice Virginia Bell to investigate Morrison’s decision to have himself appointed to administer five additional portfolios over a 14-month period during the early years of the Covid pandemic.
Morrison apologised to ministerial colleagues who he failed to inform, including Karen Andrews, but has defended the decision publicly by saying it was an “emergency safeguard”.
When asked if he should have immediately apologised after the revelations, Morrison reportedly told Sky News’s Paul Murray in a pre-recorded interview: “I’ve explained the situation and I don’t expect everybody to agree.”
“What I’m not into is getting engaged in the to and fro of the political circus of this and that and argue this and that and responding to this criticism [or] to someone having a sledge at you,” he reportedly said.
“OK they’re having a big crack at me, I’m just not engaging in [it].”
“I think someone’s just got to break the circuit here. I could respond to this claim, this accusation, and this slur … [but] I don’t wish to do that, I’m not bitter, I’m thankful, I’m grateful.”
The sit-down with Murray, who has called Morrison “my mate” in the past, is the former prime minister’s first television interview since the secret ministries were revealed.
Anthony Albanese has described Morrison’s decision not to publicly reveal his additional appointments as a “misleading” of the parliament. The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, later cited the same grounds in seeking the matter be referred to parliament’s privileges committee.
In August Morrison defended his actions as a “necessary” safeguard in “extraordinary circumstances” which were done with the “best of intentions”.
Earlier on Monday, Dick told the house that “no speaker has ever” referred an alleged deliberate misleading of the house to the privileges committee, although it is “one of the matters that can be found to be a contempt” of parliament.
Dick said that to establish the charge, a “definite action or omission [that] had in fact been misleading” would have to be shown, as well as proving that the MP knew it was incorrect, and the misleading was “deliberate”.
“I have told the member for Melbourne [Bandt] that on the information available to me, it does not seem that a prima facie case has been made out.”
Dick said that he “understands the concerns” raised by the Greens and others, and noted that it is “still open to the House itself to determine a course of action”.
Other options include a motion to establish a judicial inquiry into the multiple ministries, a suspension of standing orders to refer Morrison to the privileges committee, or a censure motion.
Bandt told reporters in Canberra that he respects the speaker’s decision “but parliament needs to take action”.
“We think there is a case for parliament … to get to the bottom of this scandal.”
Asked if the Greens would move a censure motion after the Bell inquiry, Bandt said: “Ultimately, yes, the parliament has to send a very strong message that prime ministers taking secret ministries on is unacceptable.”
“The parliament was misled … The parliament needs to send a very strong message that withholding information from the public … is unacceptable.”
