Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office accidentally sends photos to ALP photocopier

Josh Frydenberg has found himself in an awkward situation after dozens of photos of the Treasurer were sent to a Labor Party photocopier.

There are some days at work, in retrospect, when you realise you should simply have never got out of bed.

Sadly, that day arrived on Thursday for an unlucky staffer in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office with a fondness for the office photocopying machine.

The first sign something had gone terribly wrong for the busy political staffer was when dozens of pictures of Mr Frydenberg started spewing out of a photocopier in the wrong office.

Such are the wonders of the internet that Mr Frydenberg’s office, which appears to have been dutifully printing off posters of the boss on a taxpayer-funded colour printer, had instead sent the images to the wrong photocopier.

Sadly, they sent dozens of pages to the Labor Party. The constant hum of the photocopier printing out copies of the Treasurer’s face in the wrong office commenced just before lunch on Thursday.

Dozens of pictures of Josh Frydenberg started spewing out of a photocopier in the wrong office. Picture: Supplied

As alarmed Labor staffers gathered around the photocopier to watch dozens of images of the Treasurer explode from the machine, laughter erupted as they realised what was happening.

Unfortunately, for the staffer in Mr Frydenberg’s office, worse was to come.

The trove of documents sent to the Labor Party also included an exchange of sensitive communications with the Australian Electoral Committee about Mr Frydenberg’s election posters.

For example, on Wednesday, March 3, the Australian Electoral Commission wrote to Mr Frydenberg’s office expressing concern that some posters may be in breach of the law.

“Further to our correspondence on 16 – 18 February 2022, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has received a number of complaints about the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP’s billboards/posters around the Federal Electoral Division of Kooyong,” the AEC said.

The trove of documents sent to the Labor Party also included an exchange of sensitive communications with the Australian Electoral Committee. Picture: Supplied

“Specifically, complaints have been made about the authorisation of the billboards/posters.

“For example, the AEC has reviewed the attached image titled ‘Sign’ and find that it may not comply with the authorisation requirements of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Electoral Act) and/or the Commonwealth Electoral (Authorisation of Voter Communication) Determination 2021 (Determination).

“In particular, we draw your attention to the authorisation requirements of section 321D of the Electoral Act and the authorisation formatting requirements under section 11(3) of the Determination which require particulars to be ‘reasonably prominent‘ and ’legible at a distance at which the communication is intended to be read’.

“Please review the billboards/posters and correct the non-compliant billboards/posters as soon as possible and notify the AEC once the updates are complete.”

It’s not the first time that election posters have caused Mr Frydenberg problems. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

It’s not the first time election posters have caused Mr Frydenberg problems.

In 2019, senior Victorian Liberal Party figure Simon Frost conceded Chinese language signs put up by his party were designed to use similar colours to the AEC.

The Court of Disputed Returns — sitting in the Federal Court in Melbourne was asked to unseat Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his Victorian Liberal colleague Gladys Liu for allegedly misleading voters during the election.

The signs were posted at 13 polling stations in Mr Frydenberg’s seat of Kooyong and at 29 polling booths in nearby Chisholm, which was won by Ms Liu.

In the Victorian seat of Goldstein, a legal battle is ongoing with independent Zoe Daniel taking a challenge to the Supreme Court over the Liberal MP Tim Wilson’s campaign to get a local council to ban her election posters until the poll is called.