Anthony Albanese has flagged reform and inquiries in the wake of revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into five ministries, to ensure it never happens again. 

• Scott Morrison defends ministerial intervention (16 August 2022)

Mr Morrison took on the health, finance, treasury, home affairs, industry, science, energy and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

One of his former ministers, Karen Andrews, called on her former leader to resign from parliament. 

The prime minister will receive advice from the solicitor-general on Monday on whether Mr Morrison’s actions gave rise to any legal or constitutional problems, then make any necessary changes.

Mr Albanese said if the solicitor-general’s advice was Mr Morrison had acted within the law, he would still seek to change the system. 

“There’s separate questions about the functioning of our democracy, about conventions and whether any conventions have been overturned and whether there’s a need for any reforms required to ensure that something like this can never happen again,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday.

“We’ll examine all of those issues … I am running a proper cabinet government that has proper processes. 

“Very clearly, there’s a need for proper scrutiny of what occurred here, this was an undermining of our parliamentary democracy.”

Mr Albanese said his predecessor had trashed the Westminster system. 

When asked about legal ramifications following Mr Morrison’s intervention in a gas drilling project off the NSW coast, Mr Albanese would not be drawn.

He said the government would honour contracts that were signed under modern manufacturing grants, and were worth more than $828 million.

Nine mastheads revealed Mr Morrison had the final say over the grants in the industry portfolio, in the year leading up to the federal election.

Mr Albanese said deals that were yet to be formally inked would be examined by the department on their merits, with decisions to be made “very shortly”.

When asked if a royal commission into the nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response would include state governments along with the federal, Mr Albanese said their role would be also be investigated. 

“Clearly you need to look at the response of all governments,” he said.

“Primarily, it will be about the federal government. That’s what we have responsibility for, but the interaction between the levels of government of course, were critical to the response to the COVID pandemic.

“The response of various government agencies, how it operated, the different jurisdictions … it exposed some of the issues with our federation can often be quite difficult with overlapping responsibilities.”

Mr Albanese said a royal commission would be held as soon as practical.

By Tess Ikonomou in Canberra

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