Victorian Liberal MP Louise Staley ‘panders to conspiracy theory’, says Labor

The Liberal frontbencher responded to a false claim that Victoria police had shot and killed a protester by promising a royal commission into the pandemic.

Victorian Liberal MP Louise Staley. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

The Victorian Liberal who holds the state’s most marginal seat has been accused by Labor of aiding the spread of dangerous misinformation as she seeks to raise funds ahead of the November state election.

In a since-deleted exchange on her Facebook page, opposition spokeswoman for government scrutiny Louise Staley responded to a commenter’s claims about the “shooting of peaceful protesters & the death, at the hands of police, of at least one person during protests against Victorian mandates” by saying: “We will have a royal commission into the pandemic.”

A false report that circulated widely on social media last year claimed a young man called Kyle Mitchell had “died after being shot with Damndrews ordered rubber bullets” – “Damndrews” being a reference to Premier Daniel Andrews.

The report ran alongside a photo of Mr Mitchell, whose face and clothes were covered with blood. Mr Mitchell subsequently confirmed in his social media video and to media organisations that he was alive and well, and had sustained his injuries in a drunken fight with a liquor store staff member over payment for cans of bourbon.

The exchange on Ms Staley’s Facebook page took place as Liberal MPs last week held a “Ditch Dan Giving Day”, raising almost $600,000 for their election campaign from more than 2200 ­donors.

While every other Liberal MP and candidate’s name remains on the campaign’s website with ­details of funds raised, Ms Staley’s appears to have been deleted along with her Facebook post.

Ms Staley said her donation page and associated Facebook link were removed because of a technical issue that stopped ­donations from being processed.

She said she was “unaware” of the false reports that police had shot Mr Mitchell and had never “sought to pander to it”.

“The Liberals and Nationals will hold a royal commission into Victoria’s Covid response, which resulted in the world’s longest lockdowns, instances of breaches of human rights as identified by the Ombudsman and immeasurable social and economic harms,” she said.

The deletion of Ms Staley’s Facebook post took place after the Labor campaign for her western Victorian seat of Ripon sent an email to supporters containing screenshots of her Facebook interaction and seeking their own donations.

In the email, Labor accused Ms Staley of having “failed to call out her supporters on Facebook for spreading conspiracy theories about police officers shooting ‘protesters’, causing a death, at Melbourne’s ‘freedom rallies’.”

A Labor spokesman said: “Victoria Police are on the frontlines every day doing an incredible job.

“It is disappointing to see the current Liberal member for Ripon allow such abhorrent ­conspiracy theories to go ­unchallenged.”

Ms Staley won her rural seat of Ripon, north and west of Ballarat, by 15 votes in 2018. An electoral commission redistribution has given Labor a ­notional margin of 2.8 per cent in the seat, ahead of the November state election.