Proposed laws to protect Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders in national cabinet have been introduced to parliament.
The bill introduced by minister Alan Tudge on Thursday will cloak advice and information in confidentiality, similar to the cabinet-in-confidence seal that protects the federal cabinet's deliberations.
The prime minister and the leaders agreed in March last year to establish national cabinet to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The national cabinet began from a realisation that if the commonwealth, states and territories each tried to go their own way, Australia would fall short in its response to the pandemic," Mr Tudge told parliament.
Since then, the body has seen leaders square off over hotel quarantine, lockdowns and the vaccine rollout.
Advice and discussions in national cabinet and its committees are covered by the proposed laws, as well as information on how financial assistance for states and territories is handed out.
"Like the commonwealth cabinet and its committees, the maintenance of confidentiality is essential to enable full and frank discussion between the representatives of all jurisdictions," Mr Tudge said.
Independent senator Rex Patrick said Mr Morrison was "obsessed with secrecy".
He condemned the proposed bill which he says seeks to overturn a Federal Court judgment that national cabinet is not a real cabinet and that its deliberations should be open to freedom of information scrutiny.
"Having acted outside and contrary to the law with regard to national cabinet secrecy, the prime minister now wants to change the law," Senator Patrick said.
The independent think-tank the Australia Institute said merely calling something a cabinet does not make it so.
"If national cabinet is going to continue after the COVID-19 pandemic, the public must be confident that it will be transparent, accountable and open to expert advice," spokesman Bill Browne said.
