Mr Robert, who has a masters degree in information technology, racked up monthly bills 20 times higher than the average cost of data provided to other politicians' homes, averaging $1845 during the latest six months of expenses. In May, the most recent month reported, Mr Robert's internet use cost $2832, or about $90 per day. He said he used "around" 300 gigabytes of data in that month and the bill was a result of exceeding his data limit of 50GB and having to pay per gigabyte after that. Three hundred gigabytes equates to about 100 hours of streaming high definition shows on Netflix or Stan, playing 3000 hours of Fortnite online or streaming music for about 2600 hours. Mr Hawke and Mr Robert, who was returned to the ministry after the Liberal leadership challenge in August, were key numbers men to help make Mr Morrison Prime Minister.

In 2016 Mr Robert was sacked from Malcolm Turnbull's frontbench for breaching ministerial rules during a 2014 trip to China. Then assistant minister of defence, Mr Robert oversaw a mining deal between Nimrod Resources - run by his close friend and major Liberal Party donor Paul Marks - and the Chinese government-owned company Minmetals. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten suggested "a bit of Liberal infighting" could be behind the scrutiny of Mr Robert's use of his entitlements. "You know, I just want the Liberals to get on with their day job which is governing Australia," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Friday. He said that while he would "leave it to others to analyse" whether Mr Robert's internet bill had been "within the realms of reasonableness", there was "no doubt that Stuart Robert is a very controversial figure", and that "controversy seems to follow him".

"I understand that he was Scott Morrison's numbers man, helping Scott Morrison get the top job, so I think this is one for the Liberals to talk about and again," Mr Shorten said. Earlier, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told Sky that while MPs "should use their work expense arrangements appropriately", such matters were "administered at arms' length by the department as appropriate". Data deluge. Credit:Matt Golding. Asked whether Mr Robert's internet expenses were unusual, Senator Cormann said: "I'm not going to provide commentary, I'm going to let Stuart explain the circumstances, and I think he has." Ironically, Mr Morrison announced the investigation into Mr Robert's data use while in Queenstown, Tasmania to talk up his government's commitment to "delivering fast broadband for all Australians".