Kate Washington MP Member for Port Stephens Mr David Blunt Clerk of the Parliaments Parliament of New South Wales Macquarie Street ‘Sydney NSW 2000 Monday 25 February 2019 Dear Mr Blunt, | write in relation to a concerning situation regarding a staff member of a Member of the Legislative Council, ‘After months of nasty social media activity, Ihave obtained evidence which strongly suggests that the Hon Catherine Cusack’s staff member is involved with, if not operating, fake Facebook profiles for the purposes of attacking me online and promoting my political opponent. ‘Over a number of months now, my staff and I have been able to establish that there are several fake Facebook profiles being used for political purposes. We have also observed Ms Cusack’s staff member interacting with the fake Facebook profiles. In particular, the staff member has been observed on dozens ‘of occasions to ‘like’ and ‘comment on’ various posts originating from fake profiles, but each time within ‘a matter of seconds of the comments being posted, Unless this staff member is wasting his working days observing my local newspaper Facebook pages, as wellas my Facebook page and that of the local Liberal candidate, its difficult to draw any conclusion ‘other than that this staff member Is Involved with, or operates, these accounts and switches between them instantaneously in order to support the content of posts disparaging me. Itis behaviour colloquially known as ‘trolling’ made worse due to the shameless facelessness of the numerous fake profiles, whose ‘comments are made purely for political purposes. I should note that we are unable to conclusively state that the staff member is responsible for operating the fake profiles due to the complex nature of Facebook. Nevertheless, | have amassed a large amount of screenshotted evidence which strongly supports the conclusion. | have also written to Facebook in an attempt to verify that these accounts are linked, possibly via a phone application. | request that you investigate these matters and whether this staff member has used Parliamentary resources to operate fake Facebook profiles which frequently attack me, and promote my political opponent. ‘My community and I have borne these faceless, baseless attacks for long enough. Sincerely, oe Kate Washington MP Member for Port Stephens Office: 82 Port Stechens Street, Raymond Terrace NSW 2324 Mall PO Box 82, Raymond Terrace NSW 2324 Phone: 024987 4455 Fax: 02.4987 4466 Email: portstephens@pariiament nsv.govau