Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed on Tuesday Mr Morrison had appointed himself to the finance, treasury, health, home affairs and resources, and industry portfolios in secret between March 2020 and May 2021.

Andrews said Morrison should resign from parliament.

“The Australian people have been let down, they have been betrayed,” she said.

“For a former prime minister to have behaved in that manner, to secretly be sworn into other portfolios, undermines the Westminster system, it’s absolutely unacceptable.

“If there were reasons for the prime minister to be sworn into other portfolios then they should have been made public, whereas it’s been made public now by default.”

However, Morrison has defended his actions, saying it wanted an “in case of emergency, break glass” option during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“For any offence to my colleagues I apologise,” he said in a lengthy post on Facebook.

“The use of the powers by a prime minister to exercise authority to administer departments has clearly caused concern. I regret this, but acted in good faith in a crisis,” he said.

Andrews said she wasn’t told Morrison had been sworn into her portfolio by the prime minister, PMO or the department secretary.

“I have absolutely no knowledge … if any of those people knew, they did not tell me,” she said.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg told The Australian he was not aware of Morrison’s decision to take on the treasury portfolio.

When asked, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wouldn’t call for the resignation of Morrison, saying it was better to wait for the legal advice.

The solicitor-general is due to provide advice to Mr Albanese next Monday.

Earlier, the prime minister said his predecessor had orchestrated an “unprecedented trashing of democracy”.

He said he would receive advice on the matter from the Solicitor-General next Monday, flagging that there was even more to be revealed about Morrison’s behaviour.

“This is a sad indictment of not just Mr Morrison but his cabinet colleagues who sat back and allowed this to happen,” he said.

“I cannot conceive of the mindset that has created this … the way the government has functioned that has led to a point where that occurs and how a cabinet allows that to happen.”

In his Facebook post, Morrison said the pandemic posed extraordinary times for Australia “and they required extraordinary measures to respond”.

“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.”

“I used such powers on one occasion only. I did not seek to interfere with ministers in the conduct of their portfolio as there were no circumstances that warranted their use.”

However, questioned on radio before news of the extra portfolios broke, Morrison said he didn’t recollect other ministries he took on outside health, finance and resources but documents reveal he was also sworn in to oversee aspects of the social services portfolio.

“No, not to my knowledge no,” Morrison said when asked directly if he was sworn into social services.

Morrison was forced to clarify his position minutes later, saying: “I don’t recall that but I mean, as I said, there was some administrative issues done. I don’t dispute that.

“I’m happy if there are other (portfolios) to be out there.”

An administrative arrangements order for the social services portfolio was signed by Morrison and Governor-General David Hurley on June 28, 2021, on top of him also being privately sworn in as health minister, finance minister and resources minister.