Public service won't escape questions after Scott Morrison's secret ministries revealed

Steven Kennedy, who heads Treasury, and Mike Pezzullo, the Home Affairs Department secretary, were unaware the then-prime minister was sworn in on May 6, 2021 with powers to administer their portfolios. This morning, the Finance Department confirmed its then-secretary Rosemary Huxtable was not aware Mr Morrison was appointed to the Finance ministry in March 2020.

They weren't the highest-profile people to have been left in the dark. But like the public at large, the public service has found itself unaware of an important decision about the operation of the Morrison government, something that bears directly on its own work delivering on policies and services.

Mr Morrison's decision to leave public servants out of the loop also exposed departments and agencies to a potentially chaotic source of confusion. University of Canberra public policy expert and former Finance Department deputy secretary Stephen Bartos puts it this way:

"The more concerning thing is the situations where the prime minister held a portfolio, and the relevant portfolio minister didn't know. What's the potential for the public service to receive conflicting advice from the prime minister and from their real minister?

"And what is the responsibility of the public service, in a situation where the minister to whom a public service department and its officials report, has a different view from the prime minister?"

Mr Morrison has said that, with the exception of his intervention in the PEP11 gas exploration licence, he did not intervene in the running of any of the departments he was sworn in to administer. The public at this stage only has his word, but the revelations of the past few days are cause enough to investigate. Mr Morrison hasn't earned the right to have his words taken at face value.

The other question is the simple and obvious one. Why keep the ministerial roles secret from the department secretaries? That, only Mr Morrison can answer. There were clear reasons to tell them. One was that, if the rationale for his additional appointments was to safeguard against ministers falling sick with COVID, secretaries would need to know that it was the prime minister who would direct them. Clear chains of command are important in government, crisis or not.

The extent to which public servants knew about the secret portfolios is unclear although Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says more than one official from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet was aware. PM&C would have probably advised Mr Morrison about the decision and the instruments needed to give it effect, and briefed the executive council that advises the Governor-General. The Attorney-General's Department would presumably have advised on the legality of the arrangements. Mr Albanese will find out more soon, and has promised to tell the public.

The Prime Minister yesterday excused public servants for their role in the saga, but the criticisms hanging over the Governor-General show Mr Morrison's actions have cast a wide ominous shadow over the government institutions involved. Once the facts are known, the public service will face questions itself. What was its advice, and did it urge Mr Morrison to publicise the appointments? Was it frank and fearless?

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It appears Mr Morrison told public servants to keep his additional portfolios secret. If this was the case, then the bureaucrats practically speaking had little other choice than to follow the instruction.

That should then also raise another question. Is this the right state of affairs? The public may prefer its bureaucrats duty- and rule-bound to reveal such matters. Public servants, as the name spells out, are ultimately there to serve the public.

It might be that this episode shows they should fulfill this role better. Public servants could do this with independent, statutory roles to report ministerial appointments to the parliament, regardless of the instructions of a prime minister or government to keep them secret.

Of course, to be able to report a new portfolio appointment, public servants have to know about it first. Most of them - including the most senior bureaucrats - were clueless. That is why Mr Albanese is right in shielding the bureaucracy from heat until more is known.

This is all a mess of Scott Morrison's making, even if it tarnishes those he involved in it.