Scott Morrison has become the first former Australian prime minister to be censured by Parliament.
Labor MPs, several crossbenchers, and one Coalition MP who crossed the floor voted at midday to condemn the Cook MP for secretly appointing himself to several ministries in 2020 and 2021 and “[eroding] public trust in Australia’s democracy”.
Liberal MP Bridget Archer walked across the House of Representatives chamber from the Coalition side to a chair behind the government’s side where she sat next to independents and Greens MPs when a division was called.
None of her Coalition colleagues turned to acknowledge her when she resumed her seat among them.
The censure motion was agreed to with 86 MPs voting yes and 50 voting no.
Morrison, who earlier rose to defend his actions, looked relaxed when the vote was announced, made an occasional glance towards the press gallery, and even chuckled at something on his phone shortly afterwards.
He was sitting at his usual seat on the backbench next to ally Alex Hawke, who was recently revealed to have spoken out against Morrison in interviews for a new book by journalist Niki Savva.
Morrison conceded in his speech moments earlier that he went too far when he secretly took on the treasury and home affairs portfolios while prime minister, but was largely defiant and accused the government of “intimidation” and “retribution”.
Morrison, who also swore himself in as minister for health, finance and resources, said he would have admitted to the moves if he had been asked.
“Had I been asked about these matters at the time at the numerous press conferences I held, I would have responded truthfully about the arrangements I had put in place,” Morrison said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in his speech Morrison exhibited “hubris and denial”.
“The former prime minister owes an apology,” Albanese said. “He owes an apology to the Australian people for the undermining of democracy.”
Archer said in her remarks she was disappointed in her former boss.
“I do not accept any of the explanations put forward by the former prime minister for the actions, and I’m deeply disappointed for the lack of apology or, more importantly, the lack of understanding of the impact of the decisions,” she said.
It’s amazing to contemplate it, but Morrison has finally cemented his position as worst prime minister ever above Tony Abbott. Quite an achievement.
Quite!
It’s even more amazing to contemplate the fact that in the three biggest jobs of his life, with NZ Tourism, Tourism Australia, and Prime Minister of Australia, he demonstrated consistently for the last 24 years precisely the same abject incompetence, apathy, venality, secrecy and deception that he was censured for today. His many pitiful adventures during his time as a minister and PM, and even in gaining the Lib candidature in the seat of Cook or deceiving Turnbull in the leadership schemozzle, bear all the same hallmarks. It’s a career built on failing upwards, devoid of shame, that is utterly incomparable.
The Prime Minister gains his authority from the House of Reps. He must have the support of a majority to stay in office. It used to be that for lying to the Reps the honourable and expected thing to do was to resign, but that has been breeched lately. So the Reps can and should censure a member who has flouted the normal conduct of government. They would be negligent if they did not.
This played out as expected with Morrison being unrepentant. Now we can wait and see if the LNP members who supported Morison’s actions take any punitive action against Bridget Archer.
Archer is the only member of the former government left with any integrity. She was correct to say that the Liberal Party needed to vote for the motion to be in a position to reform itself. We can only hope that the former PM has left no other undemocratic surprises to be unearthed.
Perhaps a future PM one day?
One does wonder, though, if an Labor member disagreed with the censure.
Makes you wonder what someone with integrity is actually doing in the LNP.
“Had I been asked about these matters at the time at the numerous press conferences I held, I would have responded truthfully about the arrangements I had put in place,”
Who knew about the situation enough to ask?
Just another lie from the liar from the shire, Wayne. Apparently he was asked, more than once, what would happen if a Minister became sick with COVID and couldn’t administer his portfolio. At no time did Morrison own up to having had himself sworn in to multiple ministries.
My obvious answer would be that another would step in as acting minister. After all, they do it all the time when a minister is on leave or travelling overseas.
Yeah, it’s like asking out of the blue, ‘Prime Minister, did the GG secretly appoint you to the positions of Treasurer and Home Affairs?’
But when he was asked he lied anyway, in denying any more ministerial appointments after the first three were reported.
Remarkably the answer to that question is the head of the tree of Murdoch’s political correspondents, Simon Benson.