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Liberals’ latest woman problem: X-rated images on party page

A series of explicit images has been posted to the Liberals’ Facebook page overnight, in an embarrassing blunder for a party trying to rebuild its appeal to female voters.

Screenshots of X-rated images posted to the Liberal Party of Australia’s social media page overnight. Picture: Instagram
Screenshots of X-rated images posted to the Liberal Party of Australia’s social media page overnight. Picture: Instagram

When new Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley called for more women in the Liberal Party, this isn’t what she meant.

A series of explicit X-rated images were posted to the Liberal Party’s Facebook page overnight, in an embarrassing blunder for a party trying to rebuild its appeal to female voters.

The images of the scantily clad women appeared under the Liberal Party banner around midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday.

In a statement, the party said the incident was a result of a hacking of the social media page.

“Overnight, the social media account of a contractor used by the party was hacked leading to the posting of unauthorised material on the Liberal Party’s Meta accounts at around midnight,” the party said.

“All material was removed within 10 minutes of it being posted and the matter was urgently raised with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and with Meta overnight

“We apologise for any offence caused.”

Screenshots of X-rated images posted to the Liberal Party of Australia’s social media page overnight. Picture: Instagram
Screenshots of X-rated images posted to the Liberal Party of Australia’s social media page overnight. Picture: Instagram

On Wednesday, Ms Ley used her address to the National Press Club to spell out her plan to reconnect the party with women and called for greater female representation within the party.

“We must be a Liberal Party that is proudly for women and made up of women. Our party must preselect more women in winnable seats so that we see more Liberal women in federal parliament,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Now, I’m agnostic on specific methods to make it happen, but I am a zealot that it does actually happen. Current approaches have clearly not worked, so I am open to any approach that will.”

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Paul Garvey
Paul GarveySenior Reporter

Paul Garvey is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades' experience in newsrooms around Australia and the world. He is currently the senior reporter in The Australian’s WA bureau, covering politics, courts, billionaires and everything in between. He has previously written for The Wall Street Journal in New York, The Australian Financial Review in Melbourne, and for The Australian from Hong Kong before returning to his native Perth. He was the WA Journalist of the Year in 2024 and is a two-time winner of The Beck Prize for political journalism.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/liberals-latest-woman-problem-xrated-images-on-party-page/news-story/7c7e884c25302be77b0e02edc5a10215