“There was people in the department and the people in my office who were directly responsible for managing these specific things,” he said.

Responding to Morrison’s remarks,Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his predecessor was evasive in the face of demands for transparency and questioned his lack of contrition to the Australian public.

“The first rule of power grab club is don’t talk about power grab club. And Scott Morrison broke that rule today. Scott Morrison was evasive,he was defensive,he was passive-aggressive and he was self-serving. So at least he was true to himself today. What we saw was all of his characters on full display,” Albanese said.

“How about an apology to the Australian people? The Australian people went to an election not knowing that any of this had occurred,not knowing that there was a shadow government operating ... without transparency.”

Andrews is,so far,the only former minister to call on Morrison to resign,labelling his conduct unacceptable. But Morrison rejected this call on Wednesday,saying it was his intention to remain as the member for Cook.

Former employment minister Stuart Robert,a close confidante of Morrison and now shadow assistant treasurer,said there was no need for Morrison to resign,but added it had been “unwise” for him not to inform cabinet of his actions.

“My assessment is if Scott Morrison had brought this to cabinet,colleagues would have said it’s not needed,” he told Sky News.

Asked whose idea it was for him to take on the five portfolios,Morrison said:“I believed it was a prudent,responsible action in the middle of a crisis to have those emergency powers in place to ensure that I could exercise the expectations of my responsibilities.”

He said there was a “clear expectation” in the mind of the public,media and opposition “that I,as prime minister,was responsible pretty much for every single thing that was going on”.

He said it was decided the health and finance powers needed to be shared with him because those ministers were being given new and extraordinary powers to deal with the pandemic. But pressed to explain why,more than a year later,he added treasury and home affairs to his remit,Morrison said there was no single trigger,only that “they were portfolio areas where ministers could exercise unilateral decisions without reference to cabinet”.

“We were in a rather extreme situation over a protracted period of time. Those safeguards were put in place for precautionary,for prudent,responsible reasons,” he said.

Morrison said he would be happy to have a conversation about whether he “overstepped the mark”.

While he drew on the unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic to explain most of his appointments,he conceded his co-option of the industry and resources portfolio had nothing to do with COVID-19. Instead,this was done to override Pitt,the then-resources minister,toreject the PEP11 offshore oil and gas exploration licence.

“There was no intention on my part in that portfolio to do anything other than to consider from first principles the matter in relation to PEP-11.”

He only told Pitt he had taken on the power to make the decision in the resources department after it had already been done. Morrison said he would have taken over the resources portfolio to reject the offshore exploration licence even if there had not been a pandemic.

Morrison said that at no time,apart from the PEP11 decision,did he exercise any of the additional powers.

“The fact that ministers were unaware of these things is actually proof of my lack of interference.”

He reiterated that he took the decisions he thought were necessary for the national interest,“not for any personal advancement”. He clarified he did not receive any additional money for the extra roles.

Morrison rejected the suggestion he had lied on Tuesday morning when he told 2GB radio he didn’t recall whether he had been appointed to any departments other than health,finance,and industry and resources.

“No,I did not[lie]. I didn’t recall,” he said.

“Before I issued my statement[on Tuesday],I took the time to make a formal request through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to get the facts about if there were any other portfolios that administratively I was sworn[into].”

Morrison revealed the appointments were not done in person with the governor-general but “by the department and my office”. He refused to detail any conversations with the governor-general,including whether the Crown’s representative asked him to make the arrangements public.

“He would have taken the necessary advice from his own office and the suitable engagement was undertaken between my department and the office of the governor-general.”

Morrison said criticisms of the governor-general were “egregious”.

“I think the governor-general acted with absolute propriety and did everything that was expected of him in these arrangements,” he said.

He said it was up to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to follow up on any advice required or publish the appointments.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weeklyInside Politics newsletter here.