By the time Alex Dyson got back from a campaign stop in Hamilton, in the south-west Victorian seat of Wannon, there was an email waiting for him from The Australian. The question was reasonably direct: had he ever masturbated at work? The query was prompted by a decade-old Facebook post in which Dyson – then a 28-year-old triple j announcer – started an online drinking game and made a joke linking self-pleasure to the Eurodance anthem “Sandstorm” by Darude. “You just sort of have to laugh,” says Dyson, who is running as a community independent against sitting Liberal Dan Tehan. “I’d just finished meeting with a retired GP to talk about fixing Wannon’s doctor shortage and was on my way to see volunteers from the Australian Breastfeeding Association. Instead, I had to stop and respond to a decade-old Facebook post dredged up by the Liberals and pushed by The Australian.”