Scott Morrison’s secret appointment of himself as the minister for five departments was certainly bizarre. However, it was clearly lawful, it occurred during a national emergency, it kept the principle of ministerial responsibility alive and no harm was done. There will be only one permanent result from Morrison gathering up multiple portfolios: when the trumpet sounds and the great statesman is elevated to the parliament in the sky, his obituary will say: ‘He shared several other portfolios with various colleagues for short periods. Performance: average.’  So, the kerfuffle is of minor importance, truly the tip of an ice cube. But despite this, the reaction against Morrison has been hysterical and grossly exaggerated. Moreover, it is based on a lamentable ignorance of how politics and government actually work.

There is now a lynch mob after Morrison. But it should get its own house in order first – and stop being so hypocritical. Morrison’s behaviour is far less deserving of criticism than other decisions that now occur on a daily basis as governments expand their powers but are never criticised by the Left for doing so. For example, at the very moment when the issue was exploding in the media and the pundits were pontificating on Westminster conventions and struggling for superlatives to outdo each other in their rage, the Victorian parliament was passing legislation to create our very own third chamber of parliament, the Orwellian-named Aboriginal Representative body and its stepchild, the Treaty Authority that will negotiate treaties between the Victorian government and aboriginals.

This legislation is distinctly non-Westminster and non-conventional as, for the first time, a parliament is legislating for racism, not to abolish it, but to establish it; not to punish it, but to encourage it. The two bodies created by the Victorian legislation are clearly racist because the electoral roll and the qualification for standing as a candidate for election can be reached only by members of one race, the aboriginal race; all other races are excluded. Moreover, their function is to confer benefits and privileges on the members of one race, but not of any other race, and to compel compliance with the race laws by the rest of us. Non-aboriginals will not be given a Voice to air their grievances, nor a statement from the heart to generate sympathy for being excluded from the alleged benefits (and money) of this new province of law making.

So, despite the noisy criticism surrounding it, Morrison’s escapade was little more than a short-term, lawful administrative arrangement that he adopted because he thought the pandemic justified it. It fades into nothing compared with the complete departure from convention and permanent constitutional wreckage being foisted on us by the Victorian government, with other states keen to follow, and a federal government with its racist proposals for the Voice straining at the leash. Now that is real constitutional vandalism.

The critics also claim that Morrison’s self-appointment to five portfolios weakened ministerial oversight and responsibility. If it did, it would really be a breach of convention, as the basis of our political conventions is that government power and money may be acquired and used only under strict ministerial supervision. Moreover, ministers are answerable to parliament for making sure that this is done. But Morrison’s actions did not breach any such convention; ministers remained in place and did their job. There was not a single case where a minister’s responsibility was exercised wrongly or improperly, as much as we might disagree in many cases with the result, as I do.

Morrison’s critics should therefore look at the really serious breaches of ministerial responsibility on show under the Victorian legislation before abusing Morrison.It expressly prohibits any ministerial supervision of the millions of dollars the Aboriginal house of parliament will control and the unlimited power that both it and the Treaty Authority will wield. In fact, Victorian powerbrokers on the Left gloat that the law is expressly written so that there is no ministerial power over their new creation. The minister has said that the Treaty Authority, which will bargain away the rights of non-aboriginals, is ‘truly independent’. Very true. It can do anything it likes, including taking on new functions, ‘before, on or after’ it is set up (just like the proposed federal Voice). It has power to act anywhere in the world, and specifically ‘outside Australia’; its appearances at United Nations human rights inquiries will make Australia proud. On funding, it has done better than the ABC’s rolling budget; it gets $20 million ‘for every financial year after 2025-2026’. Not being answerable to a minister, its members and employees will also have ‘immunity’ from liability.

With so much largesse, a minister should supervise it and be answerable to the people through the parliament. But the act expressly says there is no ministerial control or direction over aboriginals and their new powers and money. So, compare the pair: Morrison kept ministerial authority firmly in place and under parliamentary control; the Victorian government has negated it. I would rather that Morrison appointed a dozen ministers to a portfolio than that it had no ministerial oversight.

Finally, the pundits are ignorant of how government actually works. Prime ministers have a second duty, as Morrison did. As the constitution does not talk about the prime minister at all, this duty is determined by common law and practice. The PM is the first among equals, has no regular portfolio, but has overriding responsibility over all departments. Even when a minister is named as a decision-maker, the PM has the right to be consulted by all ministers on major decisions and the right to step in and contribute to the government’s decision. If ministers do not win that argument, they can resign or be dismissed. And where is the safeguard against abuse and corruption? In the parliament of course or, if you are an aboriginal, in any one of the new chambers of parliament we will have if the Left is not stopped from creating them.