The report on internet use that ended the ministerial career of the MP for Heathcote, Paul McLeay, may have been compiled by a ''rogue employee'' to maliciously leak to the media, the president of the Legislative Council, Amanda Fazio, has said.
As another state politician named in the report, the Reverend Fred Nile, rejected suggestions he had accessed pornographic websites, Ms Fazio said there would be an investigation into who compiled the report, which she said was not authorised by anyone in a position of authority in Parliament.
''We have to look at who has done this and the potential damage it has done to members having confidence in using the computer system,'' she said.
It has also emerged that up to 98 per cent of hits on sites classified by the report as containing adult content were pop-up advertisements, which load automatically when a user visits a website.
While there are some visits to explicit websites recorded in the report, the Herald has been told that the second most registered address is an advertising pop-up for an adult dating site associated with visiting news websites.
The Herald reported yesterday that Mr McLeay resigned as Minister for Ports and Waterways after he learned details of his internet use had been leaked to the media. He admitted to repeatedly accessing pornographic and gambling sites from the parliamentary computer system.
However, it now appears Mr McLeay may have admitted to far more than the report disclosed.
At a press conference, Mr Nile said he had been told by parliamentary officials that no pornography was viewed using his personal login name and password, which is used by a part-time researcher.
''There's been nothing viewed … dealing with anything related to pornography,'' he said. ''In fact, the items that are showing are called pop-ups.''
Mr Nile said he was aware his aides were looking up the websites of the Australian Sex Party and the Eros Foundation to see if these sites contained links to hardcore porn.
The research was conducted to inform his party's campaign against any legislation in Parliament relating to internet filters, he said.
The aides only needed a ''few seconds'' on each site to ascertain the type of material it contained and did not watch entire films or movies.
''My senior researcher has conducted a lot of research into the pornography industry at my request because we have bills dealing with increasing the ban on pornographic materials,'' he said.
''I have not had my staff in there perving over a pornographic film. He's just viewed the site to see what type of material is on the site and then switched it off. I was aware they were doing it but they haven't shown it to me and they just simply use that information to draft research documents and speeches for me.''
Mr Nile has asked the Department of Parliamentary Services to investigate the logins assigned to his two full-time staff members and may ask the Australian Federal Police to investigate if any of the three computers in Mr Nile's parliamentary office were hacked.
Mr Nile said he had never in his life viewed pornography.
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