Conservative NSW MP Fred Nile has denied accessing porn sites from his office and says that members of his staff were simply researching links on certain websites.
He denied this morning a report in The Daily Telegraph that he accessed porn sites up to 200,000 times.
Reverend Nile told 2GB Radio's Alan Jones that "apparently everyone in Parliament" is on an audit of parliamentary computers of MPs and staff. He said he does not have a computer in his office.
Mr Nile suggested that his staff, two of them full-time employees and the other a part-time worker, had been following links on websites connected to groups such as the Australian Sex Party to investigate what organisations were linking to these groups. They had used parliamentary computers.
"I am sure none of them are accessing the computers to view pornography or adult films," he said.
Mr Nile said his staff had been working to "build up a diagram of what organisations and outlets are linked to these groups".
Mr Nile, from the Christian Democrat party, is well known in NSW for his conservative stance on a range of social issues, and has long opposed the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The Australian Sex Party said it was "totally disingenuous" for Mr Nile to use the party as an excuse for visiting pornographic websites.
Sex Party spokesman Robert Swan said their website contains no links to pornographic websites or videos.
"The Sex Party doesn’t have any porn on it and we don’t put our site out to X-rated material because we know 17-year-olds can join a political party," he said.
"I don’t know why he could say that he was viewing those sites for research into us as there is no reason for him to go searching for information on the Sex Party on porn sites ... he could just click the policy section on our website ... or subscribe to our newsletter list."
But Mr Swan backed the right of Mr Nile to visit adult sites.
"No they shouldn’t be [disciplined or embarrassed]. We would support Fred Nile to look at these sites, the same as [former Ports Minister] Paul McLeay," he said.
Mr Swan said the party does not take "any advertising from X-rated or restricted type places".
Mr Nile's denial comes after Labor cabinet minister Paul McLeay resigned after admitting accessing adult and gambling websites on his parliamentary computer.
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