ABC
News, 9 March
2019:
A NSW Liberal Party
candidate has had her personal Facebook account suspended, after it was linked
to fake accounts that trolled her opponent.
Sitting Labor MP for
Port Stephens, Kate Washington, last week claimed that for the past
six months fake Facebook accounts had been deriding her, but praising her
Liberal rival Jaimie Abbott.
The Liberal Party last
week denied any involvement, but yesterday conceded Facebook suspended Ms
Abbott's account as well as the account of parliamentary staffer Tasman Brown.
Mr Brown works for
Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack.
Ms Washington said Ms
Abbott should be disendorsed for what she said were dirty tactics…..
The Liberal Party has
denied Ms Abbott had any knowledge of the fake Facebook accounts, and it is
blaming Mr Brown.
Ms Abbott told the ABC
she was deeply saddened about the incident and felt many were misled.
"Elections should
be a contest of ideas rather than a race for likes on social media, and I think
that Tasman [Brown] forgot about this," she said.
"Tasman has
admitted to me that as a volunteer on my campaign he was responsible for making
multiple Facebook posts about the campaign under a number of names."
The Liberal candidate
said she had called Ms Washington to apologise on behalf of her campaign and
assured her that Mr Brown would have no further involvement in it.
"I intend to focus
on continuing to campaign on issues that are important to this community,"
she said.
Opposition Leader
Michael Daley said the trolling was a "new low" in Australian
politics.
"This is
Putin-style politics in Australia, it's not acceptable and I think that the
position of the Premier's candidate in Port Stephens is untenable," he
said.....
Mr Brown is employed
under Liberal MLC Ms Cusack, who said she was incredibly disappointed.
"He [Mr Brown]
realises that it's been a huge mistake, it's an embarrassment and all I can say
is he's very full of remorse and he's stepped completely aside from anything to
do with the Port Stephens campaign," she said.
Ms Cusack said Ms
Abbott's personal Facebook account was suspended only because it was linked to
Mr Brown.
She said Mr Brown had
administration rights to Ms Abbott's personal account to help with her social
media campaign ahead of this month's state election.
Ms Washington has asked
the clerk of the NSW Parliament to investigate whether Mr Brown's online
activities violated any breach of parliamentary resources.....
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This is Karyn & one of her kids. Karyn is handing out flyers for her husband @jeromelaxale. In what universe is it ok for the Libs to surround her in this way? This sort of behaviour has to stop. #nswpol #nswvotes @GladysB @nswliberalhq pic.twitter.com/5UfLszKStC— Penny Sharpe (@PennySharpemlc) March 9, 2019
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