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Laurie Zio, the Northern Territory Country Liberal Party Member of the Legislative Assembly for Fannie Bay, has been caught out misleading parliament about support for mandatory sentencing.

The CLP’ suite of “tough on crime” measures, introduced last October, included a mandatory sentence of three months’ imprisonment for anyone who assaults or spits on a frontline worker, regardless of the circumstances.

Frontline workers have been organising in their unions and gathering signatures on an open letter against the CLP’s mandatory sentencing law which, they say, will only traumatise vulnerable people further without improving workplace safety.

Independent MLA Justine Davis read out the frontline worker open letter in Parliament on March 26, which has so far attracted 170 signatures.

The next day Zio posted on her Facebook: “I am interested to hear all your thoughts on Mandatory Sentencing for assaults on our frontline workers.

“Like this post if you support mandatory sentencing, write a comment, send me a message if you want to comment about this topic.”

Her query immediately received comments from frontline workers saying they disagreed with the CLP’s policy. Here are some examples:

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Comment on Laurie Zio's FB post.

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Later that evening Zio told parliament the : “About three hours ago I put a post up on both my political Facebook page and my private Facebook page asking people for their feedback around what they thought about mandatory sentencing for assaults on frontline workers.

“The comment I put on my page was, please like this if you support mandatory sentencing and send me a message if you want to have a chat about it. I have received 78 messages in three hours supportive of mandatory sentencing for assaults on frontline workers.

“Many of those messages I received were from frontline workers, saying they need additional support — they are sick of being treated like garbage. In three hours, 78 messages of support — absolutely phenomenal.”

The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls conducted its own analysis of the Facebook post and issued a late on March 27.

“As of 10pm Thursday night, the National Network has reviewed Laurie Zio’s public Facebook post and can confirm that her call-out has a total of 34 comments and one share. Out of these 34 comments, 23 are explicitly against mandatory sentencing, with over 296 people liking the comments opposing the proposal,” said spokesperson Debbie Kilroy.

Even allowing for private messages, the fact that Zio chose not to include the comments against mandatory sentencing in her Thursday statement is misleading.

For many frontline workers, this has simply confirmed the CLP’s disregard for unions and workers’ rights.

“The voices of frontline workers must be heard, not manipulated for political gain,” said Tabitha Lean.

Zio was mocked in the NT News’ Bushranger gossip column on March 30. “A first-time politician’s attempt at public consultation was less rosy than was implied.”

The same day Zio’s Facebook post was deleted.