Parliament will be asked to support a censure motion against former prime minister Scott Morrison over his secret ministries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the censure motion would be moved, following the meeting of federal cabinet earlier on Monday.
The motion is expected to be moved by House leader Tony Burke or Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
Cabinet also agreed to implement all six recommendations from former High Court judge Virginia Bell’s report into Mr Morrison’s conduct.
Mr Albanese said his predecessor had undermined democracy.
“The former prime minister wasn’t responsible to the parliament, and through the parliament to the electors, to the departments that he was appointed to administer,” he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
“This wasn’t about a relationship between the former prime minister and his ministers. It’s not a personal relationship between two mates over what happened down the pub. This is about accountability of our democratic system.”
Opposition government services spokesman Paul Fletcher said a censure motion against a backbencher would be highly unusual.
“This is a political stunt by the Albanese Labor government,” he told Sky News on Monday.
“The proper purpose of a censure motion under the standing orders is to bring a minister to account to the parliament, it’s not to be used as some kind of political payback exercise.”
Mr Fletcher said the opposition would oppose any censure motion should cabinet agree to the move.
Mr Fletcher said there were sensible recommendations in the report and the coalition would back them.
“Recommending that there be legislation to require the publication in the government gazette or similar when a minister is appointed, that’s perfectly sensible,” he said.
“We will look at the legislation when it comes forward, but I imagine we’ve said pretty clearly we would be likely to support that.”
Legislation on implementing the Bell report’s recommendations will come before parliament later this week.
The prime minister said it was important to ensure the actions of Mr Morrison did not happen again.
© AAP 2022
