Why Scott Morrison's 'secret ministries' aren't actually funny at all.

We've all seen the memes. It's hard not to giggle. They're funny.

ScoMo's face superimposed over every single person at The Last Supper.

The Love Actually references. 

The Masked Singer gags. 

I particularly enjoyed this one....

Minister for the Arts pic.twitter.com/kqT4VUOQZE

— Andrej Panjkov (@AndrejPanjkov) August 15, 2022

It's a situation that lends itself to comedy, because it feels kinda... ludicrous. 

In case you missed it, the former prime minister secretly appointed himself to the finance, treasury, health, home affairs and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

He didn't tell us about it. 

In fact, he didn't even tell (most) of the ministers involved about it. 

But he did it, as he explained in a 1200-word Facebook explanation, because we were living through unprecedented times thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He wrote: "The risk of Ministers becoming incapacitated, sick, hospitalised, incapable of doing their work at a critical hour or even fatality was very real."

"As Prime Minister I considered it necessary to put in place safeguards, redundancies and contingencies to ensure the continuity and effective operation of Government during this crisis period, which extended for the full period of my term," he continued.

Ever since this revelation (in between all the memes of course), there's been a lot of outrage. 

Our current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it an "extraordinary and unprecedented trashing of our democracy by the former Morrison government."

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told 7:30 it was "sinister stuff."

Even former prime minister Tony Abbott called it "strange," "unorthodox" and "unusual."

Morrison's former home affairs minister Karen Andrews is calling on him to resign immediately. 

While it appears Morrison hasn't technically broken any laws doing what he did - it was done all above board, with the governor-general's blessing - that doesn't mean it wasn't morally and ethically wrong.

Watch: Albanese's reaction.

Above everything else, trust is what we, the constituents of Australia, deserve to have in our government and leader.

The reason this stings so much is because Scott Morrison asked us repeatedly to trust him.

To go and get vaccinated.

To wear our masks.

To stay home to help flatten the curve. 

Our trust was broken many times during his tenure. But the final straw came last month when he stepped up in front of his fellow worshippers after losing the election and told them, "don't trust in governments."

What a slap in the face. 

Image: Getty.

We live in a democratic country. Our political system is based on the foundation that no one person in charge. 

Yes, we have a prime minister - but he doesn't govern alone. He has a team of ministers who are all in charge of different things.

The thing is, had Scott Morrison told us - and his ministers - what he was doing in the face of a global pandemic, perhaps this wouldn't be such a big deal. 

But he did it privately. In secret. Away from prying eyes. 

"At that time, people expected me to be able to take what responsibilities I could to deal with the issues I was dealing with every day and I did so," he told a press conference on Wednesday, as he attempted to further explain his actions. 

He reiterated he didn't actually act as minister in any of those five portfolios he had himself sworn into. 

He used the powers just once - to kill off a gas project in the resources portfolio. 

Interestingly, as was put to him during the press conference, for someone who claims they took this unprecedented action due to the pandemic, it's curious that the one thing he acted upon had nothing to do with COVID. 

He didn't have much of an explanation for that. 

But he insisted that, "The fact that ministers were unaware of these things is actually proof of my lack of interference or intervention in any of their activities and that I honoured the basis upon which I sought those powers because I was only ever going to use them in an emergency situation that would require that."

While he has apologised to those in his party who have taken offence, he told media he didn't think he actually needed to tell the ministers involved unless he actually needed to use the powers he'd bestowed on himself. 

And therein lies the issue. 

It's deception by omission. 

There is absolutely no explanation for why these extra powers Scott Morrison took were kept secret. None. Lots of ‘I saved you all’, ‘it was an extreme circumstance’ and ‘I didn’t use them, so it’s all cool’. But no reflection on keeping everyone in the dark

— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) August 17, 2022

Scott Morrison undermined a cornerstone of our democratic political system. He gave himself unprecedented powers and didn't declare it. 

It doesn't matter that he didn't act on it. He could have, and we would have been blindsighted by it. He gave himself out-of-the-ordinary, unmatched power to govern in this country, and we were none the wiser.

That's why this isn't funny. It's actually scary that he could get away with doing something like this. 

We elected a government, not one man. We didn't sign up to a dictatorship. 

Trust in our leaders is everything. And if you're doing something as big as swearing yourself into more power, we deserve to know about it. 

You can keep up to date with Gemma Bath's articles here, or follow her on Instagram,  @gembath.  

Feature image: Twitter/Getty/Mick Tsikas-Pool/Mamamia.