AEC to probe Andrew Laming over Facebook pages

Disgraced Coalition MP to be investigated for allegedly operating 30 Facebook pages without proper authorisation.

Coalition MP Andrew Laming will be investigated by federal electoral authorities for allegedly operating some 30 Facebook pages without any proper ­authorisation.

The fresh probe into Dr Laming’s actions comes as his colleague, Liberal senator and Social Services and Women’s Safety Minister Anne Ruston, described his behaviour as “abhorrent”.

An Australian Electoral Commission spokesman confirmed the watchdog would investigate reporting by The Guardian that Dr Laming covertly operated about 30 Facebook pages, which promoted the Liberal National Party and criticised his opponents, allegedly without proper authorisation.

The spokesman said the AEC would investigate “the requirement for electoral authorisation”.

He said authorisation laws ­required voters to know who was posting political material.

“To require an authorisation statement, the communication needs to be deemed ‘electoral matter’,” he said.

The Facebook pages include the Redland Bay Bulletin, which has a similar name to the local newspaper in Dr Laming’s Brisbane bayside electorate.

Dr Laming was forced to say he would not contest the next election after Scott Morrison scolded him for allegedly harassing female constituents online and taking an inappropriate photograph of a young woman with her underwear exposed.

Dr Laming denies he has done anything wrong, saying his “hard questions” were “reinvented” as harassment. He said the photograph was a “completely dignified” image of a young woman doing a difficult job well, bending over to try to fill a small fridge with drinks.

The latter incident was recently reported to Queensland police, but the investigation concluded with no action being taken.

Dr Laming will undergo empathy training and clinical counselling.

Senator Ruston said it was “very important” that Dr Laming had a “very serious think about the implication of his actions on other people”.

“We need everybody who is a perpetrator, we need to get them to understand the impact of their actions on other people,” she said.

Asked whether she would like him to quit the LNP, Senator Ruston said: “We need to give Mr Laming a couple of weeks to reflect on that and I’d be very interested in his response when he returns from that time of reflection (empathy training).”

“I think everybody in Australia thinks that what he has done is abhorrent.”