Attorney-General George Brandis has continued a pattern of appointing his Liberal mates to cushy government positions, with new appoints to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Russell Matheson and Andrew Nikolic, both of whom lost their seats in this year’s election, were among 17 new appointments to the tribunal. But it wasn’t all ex-Liberal MPs; former Labor speaker Anna Burke and former Labor senator Linda Kirk also got gigs. This is not a new thing for Brandis — right before the caretaker period before the election, he made more than 100 appointments, including 76 to the AAT, three human rights commissioners, four Federal Court roles and many others. There was no shortage of Liberal members or ex-candidates then, either.