A former West Australian state Liberal MP who has been freshly appointed to a key tribunal was reportedly involved in loaning a campaign bus to federal Attorney-General Christian Porter.
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Joe Francis was also involved in loaning out buses to two other federal Liberal MPs, the West Australian reported on Monday.
But Mr Porter says the Liberal Party will be paying for the buses before Australians go the polls under a commercial arrangement.
"The front page of the West Australian today said there was a free provision of buses. That is not correct," he told reporters on Monday.
The bus loans were made through the Perth-based Australian Transit Group, of which Mr Francis was general manager until December.
Mr Francis was among 14 former coalition politicians or staffers in the list of 86 appointments Mr Porter made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on Thursday.
Full-time senior AAT members are paid more than $380,000 a year and junior members are paid at least $190,000.
Mr Francis was given a seven-year term as a regular full-time member.
The West Australian paper says Mr Francis told them last year the buses were loaned to the MPs as a favour.
But the Australian Transit Group said last week they had been loaned to MPs for six months on a "complimentary" basis.
They then clarified the company has a "commercial arrangement" with the WA Liberal Party through which the buses will eventually be sold to the party.
Mr Porter says the WA Liberal Party has managed the arrangement and he is unaware if Mr Francis was involved.
"The matter was conducted outside of my office."
Labor leader Bill Shorten said Mr Francis' appointment to the AAT after being involved in a bus loan showed the coalition has never seen a mate they didn't want to look after.
"This government is a government of cronies and donors," he told reporters in Townsville.
Other new AAT members include former Senate president Stephen Parry, former coalition MPs De-Anne Kelly and Bob Baldwin, as well as advisers to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and former federal minister Alexander Downer.
Labor's shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus last week said the government had outdone itself on stacking the tribunal with Liberal donors, former MPs, former staffers and mates.
The Law Council also expressed concern about the appointments.
Australian Associated Press
