Legacy slayer: The verdict is in on Scott Morrison's covert power play

And it is damning, while begging more questions and demanding more answers from Mr Morrison.

The Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue has given his opinion to Anthony Albanese that the former prime minister's actions, in secretly co-opting the jobs of his ministers, were legal but "fundamentally undermined" the "principles of responsible government".

This is now the starting point for another inquiry that Labor will pursue, when it can, with vigour and relative speed.

A "non-political" inquiry will be led by an eminent person with the terms of reference to be determined, while the Greens want to dial it up to a Royal Commission to compel witnesses and demand documents. Meantime, people from the deputy prime minister down are baying for "political consequences".

A departure at the time of his choosing? Such a thing is always a luxury.

In another lengthy Facebook post, Mr Morrison again defended his actions as dealing with multiple crises and, "in short, the authorities were not misused".

He also did not address the charge of undermining the principles of responsible government and, even though he is defending himself, he attempts to set ground rules for an inquiry.

"I will appropriately assist any genuine process to learn the lessons from the pandemic. I would expect that any credible processes would extend to the actions of the states and territories," he wrote.

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The Australian public deserves to know more about what Mr Morrison did, and it does matter. It was legal, but the Solicitor-General found it was not right.

The opinion has just created more questions. And the basic one of "why" has not been adequately addressed.

Legal implications behind decisions? Can we stop this from happening again? And just what was going on with changes to the Ministry List which happened well before the so-called "elegant solution"?

It appeared to start as that positively-spun solution to a worst-case scenario - COVID-19 possibly knocking out a Health Minister exercising extraordinary powers in the dark throes of the pandemic - but then he got a taste.

Enabled by a handful of ministers and unelected aides, he drew power to himself.

There is no evidence that anyone said co-opting portfolios while ministers were in them was a bad idea.

The public service has been tarnished.

Overriding the-resources minister Keith Pitt for political purposes did not save anyone from COVID-19.

The Solicitor-General's advice is a legacy slayer to whatever legacy Mr Morrison had from his time in the top job.

Practices are changing. These sort of appointments will be gazetted in the future.

Can this sort of covert behaviour really be stopped from happening again? Confidence in the political system and the public service must be restored.

In the meantime, referring Mr Morrison's actions to another inquiry has ultimately delayed the matter further and the man himself still has a date with Parliament next month.