Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert will repay $20,000 to after charging taxpayers more than $2000 in a month for internet

ASSISTANT Treasurer Stuart Robert says he will repay more than $20,000 he charged taxpayers for his home internet usage as political leaders, tech experts and his own neighbours slammed the Gold Coast MP.

ASSISTANT Treasurer Stuart Robert says he will repay more than $20,000 he charged taxpayers for his home internet usage.

After a day of heavy political pressure, the embattled Gold Coast MP last night told the Gold Coast Bulletin: “I acknowledge the costs are much higher than anticipated and higher than what our community expects.

Stuart Robert. Photo: Glenn Hunt

“Accordingly I will immediately and voluntarily pay back the total amount to ensure I continue to meet community expectations and standards. I look forward to the NBN starting at my home in the coming weeks.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched an investigation into Mr Robert’s expenses after it was revealed the internet usage at his “semirural” Nerang home cost $2832 in May and more than $1000 for every month dating back to 2016.

In the most recently released data it averaged $1845 over six months.

The Fadden MP initially defended the amount, saying he had been forced to use 4G because of poor internet connections at his home.

The rollout of the National Broadband Network has come to Mr Robert’s home.

“Because of where I live, there is no reliable ADSL service until the NBN arrived — which was last week,” he said.

“Accordingly, the Department of Finance approved the current internet solution using 4G as the only viable alternative for reliability, connectivity and speed.

“The problem with 4G is that it provides a modest amount of data usage per month and then has very high excess data charges. These excess data charges are what have caused concern.”

Mr Robert’s May internet usage was around $90 a day during a month which he said he used around 300 gigabytes of data, six times his 50gb limit.

Mr Robert returned to the frontbench after the downfall of Malcolm Turnbull. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

This would be the equivalent of having several hundred films on a hard drive or more than 100 hours of streaming from services such as Netflix.

The explanation was slammed by tech experts, fellow political leaders and even one of Mr Robert’s neighbours.

“I recently got a new deal through JB Hi-Fi which got us $89 for unlimited data,” a neighbour of Mr Robert said yesterday.

Mr Robert has been no stranger to controversy. In February 2016 he was forced to resign from the Turnbull Ministry over a trip to China and in 2017 gave evidence at a Crime and Corruption Commission inquiry into the 2016 Gold Coast City Council elections. There were no findings against him.

Robbie Katter. Pic Annette Dew

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Queensland MP Robbie Katter, who represents the remote north-west Queensland seat of Traeger, scoffed at Mr Robert’s excuse that his house was in a “semirural” location.

“I never want to criticise anyone for using their entitlements but it is annoying to see anyone from the city invoke the sort of term like semirural,” he said, speaking to the Gold Coast Bulletin from Doomadgee.

“I have an electorate which is 406,000sq km and I understand well what the internet is in remote areas.”

The size of Mr Robert’s internet bill also shocked tech experts.

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“It would seem extremely excessive and I would think he would need to find a better deal,” Bond University’s Dr Marcus Randall said.

“You can get unlimited data plans for around $100 these days.”

RMIT Associate Professor Mark Gregory has more than 25 years experience in the technology field and said there were many cheaper alternatives.

“Even with a pre-NBN service, the amount (Mr Robert) was paying was exorbitant and he should have been able to negotiate a better deal with the local service provider,” he said.

“To be using a 4G service for home broadband is something he shouldn’t have done.”