Andrew Bolt unleashes on Scott Morrison, secret ministry roles: John Howard defends former PM: Sky
Andrew Bolt has launched an extraordinary attack on former prime minister Scott Morrison, saying he ’embarrassed’ the Liberal Party and should ‘just go’.
The fiery salvo came after it emerged Mr Morrison secretly appointed himself to five additional ministerial portfolios over the last two years of his time as leader of Australia.
The fired-up conservative commentator also blasted new Liberal leader Peter Dutton for defending Mr Morrison, saying it amounted to a ‘double disaster’.
But another former Liberal prime minister, John Howard, who led the country from 1996 to 2007, defended Mr Morrison’s actions – saying he should not resign from parliament over the scandal.
Facing a wave of outrage from all sides of politics, Mr Morrison on Wednesday night issued a lengthy explanation – saying he made the unprecedented decision partly because he feared that ministers at any moment could be struck down with Covid.
But his reasoning did not wash with the Sky News presenter.
Scott Morrison (pictured centre, with his wife Jenny) ’embarrassed’ the Liberal Party, Andrew Bolt said
Bolt gave an almost 10-minute long monologue on his program on Tuesday night lambasting Mr Morrison.
‘Former prime minister Scott Morrison has embarrassed, even devastated his party and today the scandal got even more bizarre,’ Bolt said.
‘He’s finished, quit parliament now, just go.’
Bolt said Mr Dutton made ‘exactly the wrong call when he ‘defended Morrison when he should have cut him loose. Double disaster.’
He was furious Mr Morrison had gone on Sydney radio station 2GB on Tuesday to ‘defend his crazy decision’ to make himself the second Minister for Health, Resources and Finance and was asked ‘was that all, just those three’.
Mr Morrison denied there were any more, but shortly after it emerged that he had also appointed himself as the second Treasurer and Home Affairs Minister.
‘What a shocking memory. Morrison had somehow forgotten being secretly sworn in by the Governor-General as minister of not just one more ministry, but two,’ Bolt said.
‘It seems that Morrison got a real taste of power when he became the other Health Minister, and over the next 14 months got hungrier and hungrier.’
Bolt was scathing over Mr Morrison’s actions as the secret Resources Minister, saying he got himself sworn into the position ‘not because of the pandemic crisis.
‘But quite openly because he wanted to kill off a gas project in NSW that was threatening to cost the Liberals seats in the election,’ he said.
The damning rant continued, with Bolt slamming Morrison’s clandestine backroom party moves as ‘outrageous’.
‘Making himself the secret minister of five ministries that had ministers already in and not even telling four of the five minsters he’d done it, not even his good friend and flatmate, Josh Frydenberg?’ he asked rhetorically.
But Australia’s most popular prime minister leaped to the defence of the embattled former leader.
John Howard (pictured) has defended fellow former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison over secretly appointing himself to five ministries while he was the PM
‘I don’t think it’s something that is so reeking with principle as to require an unwanted, expensive, unnecessary by-election,’ Mr Howard said on ABC’s 7.30 show.
‘There are reasons why he did it. And part of the conservative tradition is to always understand the context.’
Bolt made fun of how Mr Frydenberg who had been staying with Mr Morrison at the prime minister’s official house in Canberra, The Lodge, but had no idea of what was going on.
‘He thought they were mates, this guy. Josh was out there saying (they’d) be sharing stuff and bunking together and chat, chat, chat at The Lodge during the pandemic.
‘And not once in these comfy little chats over the spag bol did Morrison lean over to his good mate Josh and say ‘Joshy boy, I’m now the Treasurer as well, it’s not just you, it’s me as well’.’
Bolt lashed out at Mr Dutton’s defence of his former boss calling it ‘the second tragedy for the Liberals’.
Sky News presenter Andrew Bolt (pictured) spent almost 10 minutes lambasting Scott Morrison on Tuesday night
‘He said he didn’t know that Morrison had been appointing himself as the secret minister of almost everything, but today he defended him, and I think this was a big mistake.’
Mr Dutton backed Mr Morrison’s explanation that it was necessary to have himself sworn in to five ministries because contingency plans were needed during the pandemic.
But Bolt said this did not explain why it was done in secret and that making himself the Resources Minister ‘had nothing to do with the pandemic’.
Mr Dutton should have used ‘this chance to draw a line between him and Morrison, (to) say ‘what Scott Morrison did was wrong, I don’t operate that way’,’ Bolt said.
Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison (pictured) was lambasted on Sky News
Bolt said Mr Dutton should have ditched Mr Morrison to show that he’s a ‘Liberal with principles’ who ‘fights for a cause, not just power’.
He finished by saying that ‘every Liberal should be ashamed that it takes a Labor prime minister of the socialist left, a big government guy, to warn them against letting a prime minister centralise power in himself.
‘The Liberals are supposed to be the party of freedom. But look now. Under Scott Morrison it looks like they were the party just hungry for power.’