Lee Hanson also appears to be regularly campaigning for party during work hours, social media shows.
Pauline Hanson’s daughter, Lee Hanson, has been working in Tasmania as a senior adviser to a New South Wales One Nation senator without the needed ministerial approval, Guardian Australia can reveal.
Under work base arrangements that apply to the staff of all MPs, a personal adviser such as Hanson can only be allowed to work in a place other than Canberra or the parliamentarian’s home base with approval from the special minister of state.
The revelations are included in the first episode of The Populist, the Guardian’s new podcast about One Nation.
The Department of Finance approved a contract variation for Hanson to be reclassified from an electorate officer to a personal adviser, without going through the proper process.
The role pays between $150,000 and $180,000 a year, according to the latest enterprise agreement.
If her activities are taking place without taking leave from her role, she would be in breach of the Members of Parliament Act, known as the Mops Act.
Dozens of social media posts and videos on Hanson’s page or One Nation Tasmania’s page in support of her bid to be elected as a senator for the state have been recorded or posted on her site during working hours.
The Guardian has confirmed that the meeting took place on Friday 15 May.
On 5 December last year, also a Friday, Hanson attended a networking event for businesswomen as a party representative, posting about the event with a One Nation authorisation.