Parking problem: This picture tweeted by Chris Carpenter, an advisor to Labor MP Catherine King, caused a stir on social media yesterday.
LABOR MP Catherine King has apologised to her Liberal opponent John Fitzgibbon after a staffer put a photo on Twitter accusing him of parking illegally.
The tit-for-tat took place yesterday when Chris Carpenter, an adviser to Ms King, tweeted a photo of Mr Fitzgibbon’s parked campaign vehicle and a description of the road rules.
“Hey @johnnfitzy ‘driver must park vehicle to face direction of traffic’ Road Rule 208A (1)(a)=$85 fine,” Mr Carpenter tweeted.
Not long later Ballarat West MP Sharon Knight’s adviser Simon Hammersley retweeted Mr Carpenter’s tweet before following up with a message for the authorities:
“Hi @VictoriaPolice if somebody has been parking illegally will the police check it out if you can show them a photo?”
Mr Fitzgibbon said the tweet was “completely wrong” and that the van was parked on a roadside reserve. “It wasn’t blocking a footpath, it wasn’t blocking anything,” Mr Fitzgibbon
said.
“I would have thought a staff member would have better things to do with their time.”
It appears Ms King agrees.
She tweeted after The Courier put a story online that the staffer was out of line.
“Agree this stuff is petty and have spoken to the staff member involved. Apologies to JF.”