Former federal Liberal minister Christopher Pyne has said it is “time to move on” from Scott Morrison’s five secret ministries,following a historic censure motion against the former prime minister today.
The motion passed by 86 votes to 50 and Morrison became the first former prime minister to be censured by parliament.
![Former federal Liberal minister Christopher Pyne.](https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_300%2C$height_150/t_crop_auto/t_sharpen%2Cq_auto%2Cf_auto/b2b2a24964814fde39de20c237fc0b314d80112a)
Former federal Liberal minister Christopher Pyne.Alex Ellinghausen
Morrison was appointed in secret to five additional ministries between March 2020 and May 2021:Health;Finance;Industry,Science,Energy and Resources;Treasury and Home Affairs.
Former High Court justice Virginia Bell said in a report last week that “the secrecy with which the appointments had been surrounded was corrosive of trust ... in government”.
But Pyne told ABC News 24 he thought “the Australian public see it as a very inside the beltway story and a Canberra bubble story”.
“It’s time to focus on things that are more important to people like inflation and things,” he said.
Former federal Labor minister Craig Emerson,unsurprisingly,had a different view.
“If this is not worthy of a censure,what is?” he said.
He said he could understand why Morrison swore himself into the health portfolio during the COVID-19 pandemic but in other cases the rationale was unclear.