Scott Morrison has brushed off calls to resign from Federal Parliament as he defended his decision to secretly appoint himself to five portfolios during the pandemic.
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Mr Morrison said there was a public and political expectation that the prime minister took responsibility for everything during the crisis, which justified a step that his successor Anthony Albanese has described as an "unprecedented trashing" of Australia's democracy.
Mr Albanese accused Mr Morrison of being evasive, defensive and passive aggressive during a near hour-long press conference in Sydney, as he called on the former prime minister to apologise to the public for the saga.
Mr Morrison denied he deceived his colleagues with the secret power-grab, claiming the fact he didn't use the powers - aside from on one occasion to kill-off an offshore gas exploration permit - proved that he trusted his fellow ministers.
Mr Morrison argued that revealing the appointments to his colleagues could have undermined their confidence in conducting their own jobs.
"I did not consider that to be in the country's interest," he told reporters in Sydney.
"I did what I thought was necessary in the national interest to ensure the government continued to perform well."
Mr Morrison rejected suggestions that he took over the five departments or acted as a co-minister, saying he made the self-appointments so he could make decisions in case of emergencies.
READ MORE ON THE MORRISON SCANDAL:
- 'I apologise': Morrison offers no excuse for 'good faith' secrecy
- 'Betrayal of trust': Karen Andrews tells Morrison to resign from parliament
- Albanese excuses public servants for not revealing Morrison's secret ministries
- Secret Morrison appointments coincided with major pandemic moments
- 'Stealth bulldozer': Scott Morrison held five secret portfolios
- 'Unprecedented trashing': What we know about the Morrison revelations
- 'Oversight': Morrison defends secret power grab as more ministries discovered
- Analysis: Bulldozing in secret, Scott Morrison trashes whatever legacy he had
- Explainer: What did Scott Morrison do and why does it matter?
The former prime minister also described criticism of Governor-General David Hurley, who oversaw the secret appointments, as "egregious".
Mr Morrison fronted the media early on Wednesday afternoon amid growing calls for him to resign over the secret portfolio scandal.
The Cook MP's future in the Federal Parliament had been hanging in the balance after revelations he appointed himself to five portfolios during the pandemic, without telling the public or most of his cabinet colleagues.
Mr Morrison took the unprecedented step of secretly appointing himself to the health, finance, treasury, home affairs and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.
The former prime minister said the pandemic created an expectation from the public, and the then-Labor opposition, that the prime minister was singularly responsible for handling the crisis.
"I believed it was necessary to have authority to have what was effectively emergency powers ... to enable me to act in the national interest. and that is what I did in a crisis," he said.
Mr Morrison said that in the wash up, he hadn't used powers that were unlawful and hadn't accepted payments for taking on the new positions.
He said his only intervention was to scuttle the Pep-11 gas exploration permit, a decision he said was made in the national interest.
"There was no personal advantage to me as prime minister in doing any of these things, other than to ensure that should I be in a position that I confronted a set of circumstances that no-one could fore-know, that I would be able to take a decision that was in the national interest and would save lives and livelihoods," he said.
Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews called on Mr Morrison to resign after accusing him of "betraying the trust" of the public with his secret power grab.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley and former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce have rejected suggestions that the former prime minister should quit.
Asked if he would resign as Cook MP, Mr Morrison said: "Of course not".
"I didn't take these decisions [secret appointment] as the Member for Cook," he said.
"These issues don't relate to my role as the Member for Cook and I will continue to serve as the member for Cook, for the people of Cook, to the best of my ability."
Mr Morrison's press conference, his first since losing the May federal election, came after he used a lengthy Facebook statement on Tuesday to apologise to his colleagues for keeping them in the dark about the appointments.
But he insisted the decisions were made in "good faith" and during a period of unprecedented uncertainty.
More to come
