Answering Waleed Aly's concerns about an inquiry into Scott Morrison

Photo by Josh Withers on Unsplash

Waleed Aly has a piece in Nine Entertainment outlets this week in which he wonders aloud what the point is of an inquiry into Scott Morrison having himself secretly sworn into five other ministries while he was prime minister. Aly makes the case that he doesn’t see the point of further investigation but says he is open to being convinced that an inquiry might be necessary.

Let me try and convince him.

Aly’s first point is that, although Morrison’s actions “were inimical to our system of responsible government” they weren’t illegal. In fact, he says, the solicitor-general, Stephen Donaghue QC, has already provided legal advice “that it would be dead simple to stop this happening again, and explained exactly how you’d do it…. No doubt he could draft that legislation for you in an afternoon if you asked him to.”

Aly also says “Albanese makes the point that the solicitor-general’s advice is based only on known facts, and that an inquiry might unearth more fac…