Scott Morrison must resign immediately and try to salvage what remains of his shredded reputation

‘Scott Morrison’s failure to identify himself as a minister was a gross deception of both the parliament and the Australian people.’ Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to at least five additional ministries, in concert with the governor general, is destructive of our system of responsible government, a deception of the parliament, and an affront to the Australian people. Make no mistake about this bizarre usurpation of the ministerial command of treasury, home affairs, finance, health and resources: it is serious and disturbing.

Morrison defended his decision to keep those ministries concealed by saying he never exercised the powers he had. He said he believed “it was necessary to have authority, to have what were effectively emergency powers, to exercise in extreme situations that would be unforeseen, that would enable me to act in the national interests”.