Australia had a secret second Federal Minister for Health for two years, a new book claims — none other than former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The political expose, Plagued, claims that Mr Morrison was worried about the unprecedented powers handed to Greg Hunt under the Biosecurity Act, the legal basis for almost all federal public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Hunt himself compared the powers to the “divine right of kings”.

According to the book, written by political journalists Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers and released on Tuesday, the extent of the powers meant Greg Hunt “could personally make directives that overrode any other law and were not disallowable by Parliament.