Reports say former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into additional federal government portfolios when in office. 

A new book titled ‘Plagued’,written by journalists Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, reveals Mr Morrison swore himself into the health, resources and finance portfolios, so that he could take decisions that he could not make as PM. The book is based on extensive interviews with Mr Morrison. 

It has since been revealed that he also gave himself joint responsibility for home affairs, treasury and industry.

Many are outraged that the prime minister could have used centralised power to secretly override ministerial decisions, in what some see as a serious erosion of the Westminster system. 

It also raises questions about how public servants can function if they are unaware of how the chain of decision-making works in their portfolio.

Australia's Governor-General David Hurley has confirmed that he appointed Mr Morrison to “administer portfolios other than the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet”.

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says Mr Morrison used his ministerial powers to stop controversial gas projects slated for the NSW coast, which teal independent candidates opposed. 

Former resources minister Keith Pitt said he found out about the former PM’s power grab when Mr Morrison halted the PEP-11 gas drilling project off the coast of New South Wales.

David Littleproud, who replaced Mr Joyce as the Nationals leader, says he did not know about Mr Morrison's extra ministerial roles.

Many of his former cabinet colleagues have expressed surprise and denied any knowledge of the former PM turning himself into a “shadow government”. 

Mr Morrison's successor as Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton, said he knew nothing of the moves made by the former prime minister.

Former finance minister Mathias Cormann reportedly had “no idea” that Mr Morrison was secretly swearing himself in as finance minister 

The book reveals Mr Morrison told former health minister Greg Hunt that he trusted him, but needed to make arrangements in case Mr Hunt contracted COVID-19. This would be despite the fact that he could have taken on special ministerial powers if the minister did indeed get sick. 

“I trust you mate but I’m swearing myself in as health minister too,” Mr Morrison is reported to have told Mr Hunt.

After the story broke on Monday, Mr Morrison called in to a conservative talk-back radio show to defend himself, insisting he had to take “unprecedented” measures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was a safeguard in terms of how we were making decisions, you know, at a fairly extraordinary time,” he said.

He said the choice not to inform every cabinet colleague affected by his additional portfolio responsibilities was an “oversight”.

“I think sometimes we forget what was happening two years ago and the situation we were dealing with, it was a very unprecedented time,” Mr Morrison said.

“We were dealing with unprecedented times and we had to take unconventional ... extraordinary measures.”

Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has told reporters that the use of secret powers was “very odd”.

“It’s not strange that [Mr Morrison] might want to have a second person who was able to take over if the first [minster] was incapacitated, etc. but there are ways of doing that anyway,” she said.

“Ordinarily, the basic rules are you announce it to parliament — because Parliament needs to know who is responsible — and also, you can just make changes to the administrative arrangements orders, which is the other way of doing this. 

“Frankly, it’s just bizarre. The secretness of it is the weird thing.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the people of Australia were “misled” by the former PM. 

“How is it that the Australian people can be misled whereby we know now that Scott Morrison was not only being Prime Minister, but was Minister for Health, was Minister for Industry and Science at the same time as Resources, was the Minister for Finance, and we had the extraordinary revelation that Mathias Cormann, apparently, wasn’t aware that Scott Morrison was the Minister for Finance as well as himself,” he said.

Mr Albanese has asked the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to seek advice from the Solicitor General, among others, on the legality of Morrison's extra portfolios, and report back. 

“I'll be getting a full briefing this afternoon,” Mr Albanese said on Tuesday.

“We all know that Scott Morrison had trouble doing the job that he had. Perhaps it was because he was doing so many different jobs that we didn't know that he had.

“This isn't some local footy club. This is a Government of Australia, where the people of Australia were kept in the dark as to what the ministerial arrangements were.

“It's completely unacceptable.