Morrison makes his long-term flatmate assistant treasurer

Scandal-prone MP Stuart Robert is back on the Coalition frontbench.

Stuart Robert in the House of Representatives. Picture: Kym Smith

Scandal-prone MP Stuart Robert is back on the Coalition frontbench, more than two years after he was dumped by Malcolm Turnbull.

A long-time Canberra flatmate of Scott Morrison who was believed to have helped count numbers last week in the then-treasurer’s bid for the top job, Mr Robert has been elevated to assistant treasurer after his close links with a party donor cut short his first stint as a junior minister. In February, 2016 Mr Robert was dumped as human services minister for breaching ministerial standards after helping friend and Liberal donor Paul Marks sign a deal in China while on personal leave.

It later emerged Mr Robert, MP for the safe seat of Fadden, held shares in a company 35 per cent-owned by Nimrod ­Resources, the company at the centre of the scandal. Mr Robert was also the subject of a probe by Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission after revelations he secretly bankrolled “independent’’ candidates at the Gold Coast council elections. The candidates received funding out of the Fadden Forum, a Liberal National Party fundraising entity set-up by Mr Robert, which had received donations from lobbyists. The CCC found there was “insufficient evidence’’ of wrongdoing.