'I did what I thought was necessary.' Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his decision to secretly swear himself into five ministerial portfolios during the pandemic. 9News READ MORE:
Morrison took ministerial responsibilities in the Health, Treasury, Home Affairs, Resources and Finance portfolios.The former prime minister claimed he had acted in accordance with public expectations.
"I did what I thought was necessary in the national interests to ensure the government continued to perform well." But he did distinguish between taking on pandemic-related ministerial roles, and his assumption of the Resources Minister role, in which capacity he blocked a gas project that minister Keith Pitt favoured.In spite of that, Morrison said Pitt did an "outstanding job" as minister."I was administratively sworn in which gave me authority, like many other ministers had, to exercise decisions in an emergency situation," Morrison said.
"I believed it was necessary to have authority, to have what were effectively emergency powers, to exercise in extreme situations," he said.Treasurer Jim Chalmers described Morrison's behaviour as "dictatorial" earlier today."The Morrison Government is just as guilty as Scott Morrison himself," he said."The idea that they didn't know that Scott Morrison had these dictatorial tendencies is absolutely ridiculous and absolutely laughable.
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