Every staffer in Parliament House, Sydney will be required to undertake mandatory code of conduct training following a social media trolling scandal in the seat of Port Stephens during the state election.
Adviser to Liberal MP Catherine Cusack Tasman Brown, who was assisting Liberal Candidate Jaimie Abbott during the campaign, was found to have breached the code of conduct when he used a fake Facebook account to troll the campaign of Labor MP Kate Washington.
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- Jaimie Abbott apologises to Labor's Kate Washington for volunteer's Facebook activity
- Departed MP Scot MacDonald calls for Liberal party to expel anyone who knew about Port Stephens Facebook trolling
Mr Brown has apologised for the incident.
Manager of recruitment and training in the Department of Parliamentary Services Colin Brown wrote to all parliamentary staff this week advising the Code of Conduct for Members' Staff had been updated to incorporate emerging issues including the use of social media by members' staff and political party activities.
As such, all staff were required to familiarise themselves with the updated code.
"Recognising the importance of these issues it has been agreed by the three department heads that these online training modules will be mandatory for members' staff of both Houses," Mr Brown wrote.
Ms Washington complained to Facebook about the accounts, which had been active for months prior to the election.
Facebook deleted seven profiles connected to Mr Brown as a result.
It was the first time Facebook had taken action in Australia on a complaint about online activity related to an election campaign.
A Facebook spokesman said at the time that it had taken action because Mr Brown's use of the social media platform breached its conditions of use.
"We take a strong stand against people that attempt to mislead others about who they are or what they're doing. We are constantly improving our capabilities to identify and remove violating activity through a combination of automated and manual investigations," the spokesman said.
Ms Washington also complained to the Clerk of the NSW Parliament that the trolling was a breach of parliamentary resources.
Ms Washington enjoyed a 3 per cent swing in her favour at the election to comfortably hold the seat, which at 4.7 per cent had been the most marginal Labor-held electorate in the Hunter before the vote.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has constantly distanced herself from the scandal.
