They claim to represent battlers, but Pauline Hanson’s One Nation are now the party of the jet set, joining Federal WA Liberals in luxury private flights across the continent.

New One Nation senator Peter Georgiou was invited aboard a private RAAF flight with a select group of WA Liberals for a flight home to Perth after hours of Government filibustering in the Senate left MPs scrambling to get their usual plane out of the capital on Friday night.

The invitation to the One Nation senator was kept quiet, and was not extended to Labor or Greens MPs. Labor has seized on the event, saying it again shows how close the WA Liberals are to One Nation.

“West Australians know the Liberals want to help get One Nation into Parliament, and now they also offer them luxury lifts back from Parliament,” Labor MP Tim Hammond said.

“Every day that passes is a day we get further confirmation that One Nation is simply a faction of the Liberal Party.”

Senator Georgiou said he took the private flight because the last commercial flight back to Perth on Friday was at 7pm, and the Senate was only just finishing. He said any details of the flight would be made public in due course.

The Government kept the Senate running late on Friday as it sought to strike a deal with Nick Xenophon to give tax cuts to medium-sized businesses.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was longstanding practice for both sides of politics to use special-purpose aircraft when no commercial flight is available. “On these occasions, where there is room, senators and members from all political parties are invited to use the flight,” the spokesman said. “This practice is encouraged by the Department of Defence.”

Senator Georgiou was joined aboard the RAAF Challenger jet by Liberals Mathias Cormann, Michaelia Cash, Dean Smith and Chris Back.

Patrons of the Government jet are typically offered top-notch food with several courses, expensive wines and spirits. The Challenger flights are said to cost taxpayers about $20,000 to fly from Canberra to Perth. There are additional costs of crew wages and maintenance. Taxpayers are stung again to fly the same jet back to Canberra empty.

It is understood several Labor senators managed to race for the 7pm flight to Perth, while others who missed out stayed in Canberra.

Senator Georgiou is the brother-in-law of former One Nation senator Rod Culleton, who was dumped from Parliament when the High Court ruled his election was invalid.