Former Liberal MP accused of online harassment by female party member

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Former Liberal MP Bernie Finn is facing allegations of online harassment by a prominent former member of the Liberal Party over public posts on Facebook.

The Liberal Party member – who has requested not to be named – has initiated legal action against Finn and is seeking an intervention order to prevent him from continuing to publish her name on social media.

Former Victorian MP Bernie Finn described allegations of online harassment as “nonsense”.Credit: Joe Armao

Finn, who was expelled from the state’s parliamentary Liberal team in 2022 over online posts, described the allegations as “nonsense” and told The Age he was “not going to allow anybody to misuse the court to blacken my name.”

Legal action was initiated after the conservative politician and the woman saw each other in a car park recently in Melbourne’s CBD following Finn’s appearance on Sky News. After the encounter, Finn published a post on Facebook about the former Liberal Party member.

At an initial hearing in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court, the complainant made a list of requests, including that Finn discontinue mentioning her in future posts on social media. Finn told The Age he would not agree to the request, with the case due back in court on September 11.

The Age contacted the complainant, who confirmed that legal action had been initiated but refused to comment on the allegations.

Finn recently joined Family First and will run for a seat in the Senate at the next federal election.Credit: Jason South

Three Liberal Party sources speaking to The Age on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the complainant had first raised concerns about Finn’s behaviour seven years ago, but no action was taken by the party at the time despite at least two MPs, as well as two party officials, being made aware of the allegations.

The Age spoke to two former party office holders who confirmed no formal complaint was ever made to the party.

Finn lost his Upper House seat at last year’s state election after switching to the Democratic Labor Party. The veteran MP has since joined Family First and will run for the Senate at the next federal election.

In May 2022, Liberal MPs voted to expel the right-wing MP from the state’s parliamentary Liberal team for posting on Facebook that abortion should be banned, even for survivors of rape.

Finn did not attend that meeting, claiming it would have legitimised the move against him. Later that day he arrived at Parliament House with about 50 supporters who chanted “hero” and “Bernie”.

Before being expelled, Finn, a Christian conservative, was warned by the party leadership about the content of his social media posts.

He previously compared Premier Daniel Andrews with Hitler, described a former female staffer as a rat, and shared several pro-Trump posts during and after the Capitol Hill riots in 2021.

Before joining the upper house, Finn was the member for the now-abolished lower house seat of Tullamarine between 1992 and 1999.

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