The Prime Minister of Australia, recently elected Anthony Albanese, has opened an investigation into former government ministers who were present under the last Australian administration, which was led by Scott Morrison. Former PM Morrison had recently given himself several administrative positions within the Australian government between 2020-2021, without the knowledge of the (at that time) incoming Albanese Administration. This is a highly illegal act within the Australian government and has led to an investigation being opened into Morrison’s government. Australian Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue advised the current administration that “Mister Morrison’s actions were legal”. This underscores years of protests and issues with corruption which have been present ever since Scott Morrison first took his position as prime minister of Australia. An example includes scandals with large Australian energy companies like the coal-based ALS company, which were said to have been manually appending their own reports about the quality of coal products produced to drive up demand and value for the energy source. Scott Morrison has been a highly controversial figure in Australian politics, and has become even more widely known after the most recent scandal surrounding his appointment of over 6 government ministers without the knowledge of the incoming Albanese government. Morrison assigned himself the positions of; Joint Minister of Finance, Health, Treasury, Home Affairs and Resources within the two year period he had before losing his position in May of 2022. Many ministers who replaced Morrison after he lost his powers noted the fact that they were not informed they shared folders with Morrison and were surprised to discover the number of positions he had personally assigned himself and then left within two years. Morrison defended his decisions as ‘necessary actions in extreme times’. Investigations into Scott Morrison and his administration have over time slowly revealed dozens of scandals and incidents which have a complete lack of public transparency over things such as court rulings, ministerial appointments and economic changes. This has been widely criticized by both the Australian government and media, with the latter being known for being controlled and silenced by the Australian government, it is a quite rare instance to see Australian Media agreeing with their government. The investigations have thus far not been fully released to the public, but some information is expected to be slowly released over time.

Prime Minister Albanese speaking on the actions of Scott Morrison (POOL/Reuters/Alex Ellinghauser)

On Friday, Prime Minister Albanese announced that former Australia High Court Judge Virginia Bell would be investigating the power grab done by Scott Morrison after his exit from office. Prime Minister Albanese also stated that she had a deadline of November 25th, 2022, to report her findings from the investigation into Scott Morrison and his administration. Scott Morrison has not made any public statement on the oncoming investigation as of time of writing.