Liberal politician turned full-time board member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), Andrew Nikolic, has come under fire from Labor for "No" campaign Facebook posts it says may be in breach of the independent body's code of conduct.
Five months after losing his Tasmanian seat of Bass at the 2016 election, Nikolic was appointed by attorney-general George Brandis to a $300,000 per year job at the AAT.
The AAT is the independent body of review for important government decisions around freedom of information requests, disability and veterans' appeals, child support arrangements and refugee applications.
The AAT's code of conduct for members requires that in their private capacity, members "should avoid any activities, interests or associations which may undermine public confidence in the impartial performance of their tribunal responsibilities".
Labor has accused Nikolic of continuing to act like a politician and speak out on controversial issues on his public Facebook page, which has remained active since he left politics and was appointed to the AAT.
"I will be voting NO," Nikolic wrote in a post on September 8 after the High Court ruled the same-sex marriage postal survey would go ahead.
Nikolic echoed the messaging of the Coalition for Marriage's campaign, that religious freedoms will be impacted and parents will not have a say about sex education will be taught in schools if a "Yes" vote is successful.
"Our decisions should be based on more than slick marketing campaigns and catchy slogans about love, civil rights and equality," he said.
In comments on September 11, Nikolic criticised Labor and the Greens for twice blocking the Coalition government's preferred method of dealing with same-sex marriage - a compulsory national plebiscite.
On September 27, Nikolic posted a video of a same-sex marriage supporter's "rant" against the No camp and wrote: "There's no love, tolerance or respectful debate from one side in this encounter!"
He has also linked to The Australian newspaper articles on the "deceptions" of the "Yes" case and a "thoughtful" op-ed by former prime minister John Howard on why he is voting "No".
More than three times in the last month Nikolic has posted about Howard, calling him "one of Australia's greatest prime ministers". He also updated his cover picture to a snap that features him in fatigues alongside Howard in Iraq.
The Facebook page has been renamed since Nikolic left parliament, but he continues to post political content and host old Liberal campaign material.
Nikolic regularly praises the Turnbull government for dishing out funding he claims he secured for his former electorate, and criticises the "shambolic" local council members blocking "shovel ready projects".
The Facebook page also continues to host Liberal party material from the 2016 election campaign encouraging people to "VOTE 1 Andrew Nikolic and VOTE 1 for the Liberals in the Senate!"
Another post from June 22, 2016 refers to opposition leader "Bill Shorten's Medicare lie" saying: "Shame on you Mr Shorten for the thousands of false Labor-GetUp-Union phone calls into private homes scaring elderly Australians".
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told BuzzFeed News these Facebook posts may be a breach of the Administrative Review Council (part of the Attorney-General’s Department) Guide to Standards of Conduct for Tribunal Members which states: "partisan political activity in relation to issues of public controversy is not considered appropriate".
"His public Facebook page is nothing but a campaign vehicle for himself and the Liberal Party," Dreyfus said.
Dreyfus says he has concerns with Nikolic posting campaign material advocating for the No vote in the upcoming postal survey, as well as spruiking the Liberal party.
"The fact he hasn’t even bothered to take down party videos from last year’s election proves that. Mr Nikolic has two choices – he can be a campaigner for the Liberal Party, or he can do his job as a senior Tribunal member. He cannot do both."
A spokesperson for AAT told BuzzFeed News: "Senior member Andrew Nikolic’s personal social media posts were unrelated to any AAT business and did not compromise his professional independence, impartiality or integrity."
AAT said any content posted before Nikolic's appointment to the tribunal in January were none of their concern, and pointed to a different conduct guide.
Labor plans to raise Nikolic's conduct with Brandis at the next round of Senate estimates in late October.
When he was still in parliament, Nikolic wrote to the vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania after an academic at the university wrote to the local paper critical of the then-Abbott government. He questioned whether the academic had broken any protocols by airing his views publicly.
Nikolic was part of the self-dubbed "Three Amigos" of Liberal Tasmanian MPs, who all lost their seat in 2016 and have been subsequently appointed to government jobs. Brett Whiteley is still working in Parliament House as a government adviser and Eric Hutchison was appointed administrator to Norfolk Island with a $293,000 annual salary.
As reported by BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, under Brandis six out of 23 of the senior full-time members on the AAT (that is more than 26 per cent) have identified Liberal links.
At the time of publishing Brandis and Nikolic has not replied to BuzzFeed News' questions.