Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will publicly release legal advice on his predecessor Scott Morrison's secret appointment to five ministries on Tuesday.
Anthony Albanese wants to share the legal advice with the Cabinet before its public release. Photo: AFP
Department secretary Glyn Davis was due to brief Albanese earlier today.
Albanese requested the advice last week when it was revealed Morrison had appointed himself to five additional portfolios in secret between May 2020 and April 2021.
Those portfolios included health, finance, treasury, home affairs and industry, science and resources.
Albanese said he would share the advice with Cabinet tomorrow before making it public.
"I think politeness and proper process means that they should have access to it," he said.
"I Intend to release that advice so that people can see it and be transparent about it and we will, because my government is an orderly government.
"I don't know that there are any decisions to be made - I am not sure because I haven't examined it yet."
Separate review possible
Albanese has flagged a separate review into Morrison's actions - a move that's won the support of Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer.
Scott Morrison is in the firing line over his actions regarding the secret ministries. Photo: AFP
He described the lack of transparency as a "basic fundamental weakness in checks and balances".
"Quite clearly there are real questions here, questions of legality," he said.
"There hasn't been a suggestion of illegality but how this could occur, how it fits in with conventions, checks and balances that are there in our democracy?"
The Greens have called for a broader inquiry that would also look into the role of the public service and governor-general.
Leader Adam Bandt accused the former prime minister of "holding the public in contempt".
"The fundamental question is whether the former PM misled the public, the parliament, and whether pressure was put on the [Governor-General] or the public service," Bandt said.
Release of solicitor-general's advice rare
Solicitor-general advice has rarely been made public.
Morrison didn't release advice from the nation's second law officer into any potential conflicts of interest of the former attorney-general Christian Porter last year.
In 2018, then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull released legal advice from the solicitor-general that found Peter Dutton was "not incapable" of sitting in parliament.
That advice was sought in the dying days of the Turnbull government over subsidies earned by his childcare businesses.
Australian National University international law professor Don Rothwell said the public release of solicitor-general advice only occurred in the "rarest of circumstances".
"It's really rather exceptional for the Commonwealth government to release any solicitor-general's advice," he said.
"The solicitor-general, as the second law officer of the Commonwealth, will probably be rather conservative, even circumspect in terms of how that advice is framed because of the potential that litigants might be circling."
-ABC
