Australia PM flags legal reform after scandal

CANBERRA－Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has flagged reforms in response to his predecessor's secret ministries scandal, according to media reports.

Albanese on Sunday revealed that he will receive advice from the solicitor-general on Monday on any legal and constitutional problems surrounding former prime minister Scott Morrison swearing himself into several ministries.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Morrison had been secretly appointed to five ministries including the health, home affairs and treasury portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

Morrison's actions have drawn criticism from the Labor government and Morrison's own party, but the former prime minister has defended the moves on the basis that he felt responsibility for the nation in the pandemic was his alone.

Albanese said on Sunday that "very clearly" there is a need for proper scrutiny of what occurred.

"There are separate questions about the functioning of our democracy, about conventions and whether any conventions have been overturned, and whether there's a need for any reforms required to ensure that something like this can never happen again," he told Sky News Australia.

Morrison, who has been urged by some members of the opposition Liberal Party to resign from Parliament over the scandal, justified the appointments by saying it was necessary to guide Australia's response to the pandemic.

Albanese said on Sunday his government would establish a royal commission into Australia's coronavirus response as soon as it is practical.

"Clearly, you'd need to look at the response of all governments," he said. "Primarily, it would be about the federal government, that's what we have responsibility for. But the interaction between the different levels of government of course was critical to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

On Sunday, Australia reported more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 30 deaths as the country continues to battle the wave of Omicron subvariant infections in the winter.

Xinhua - Agencies