Liberal Party insiders have told Fairfax Media the man is Adrian Maher, a key member of Ms O'Dwyer's campaign team. "That ain't his wife, and those ain't his kids," said the party insider. "Forget about fake tradie, but this is certainly a fake family." Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer. Credit:Andrew Meares The source said the woman in the photo was also involved with the Liberal campaign in Higgins and "they are definitely not a couple". Fairfax Media has confirmed that Mr Maher works at the Higgins campaign office. He was not available for comment when the office was contacted by Fairfax Media on Thursday. Repeated questions about why Mr Maher was used in the campaign leaflet have gone unanswered by the Higgins campaign team.

Such ploys are used by all sides of politics, but the timing of the revelation – from inside her own campaign team – comes at a bad time for Ms O'Dwyer, who faces the prospect of Higgins going to preferences for the first time in the 59-year history of the blue ribbon Liberal seat. The "fake family" that features in the Liberal brochure promoting Kelly O'Dwyer in Higgins. The revelation follows news that social media giant Twitter has launched an investigation into the Liberal Party after it faked a copyright claim to try and shut down a joke account that likened Ms O'Dwyer to Sophie Mirabella. Last week Fairfax Media reported that Ms O'Dwyer had taken the extraordinary step of forcing Twitter to dismantle the joke account @Kelly_dnuSophie, which compared her election campaign in Higgins to the disastrous 2013 loss of Indi by her friend and fellow Liberal Sophie Mirabella. The LinkedIn profile of Adrian Maher, who features in the Higgins "fake family".

The joke account had barely more than 200 followers at the time – "a significant proportion of whom are pornbots" said one of the students who started it – but the public comparisons to Ms Mirabella's failed campaign seemingly irked Ms O'Dwyer. As the "is Kelly the new Sophie" comparisons gained traction, an official complaint was lodged by Jennifer Freind (sic), who is described as the "social media advisor to the Victorian Liberal Party". She issued a "Digital Millennium Copyright Act (USA) takedown notice", claiming the copyright to photographs used by the account was owned by Kelly O'Dwyer. Illustration : Ron Tandberg Twitter locked the account in response, however, most of the photographs on the site appear to be under copyright not to Ms O'Dwyer, but to Fairfax Media. Twitter's latest determination of "Case #34662656" isn't good news for Liberal Party of Victoria or Ms O'Dwyer.

"Upon further review of the DMCA notice ... we have determined that the notice is invalid," states the social media giant. "The content has been restored and [the] account has not been penalised." Twitter has also issued a please explain to the Liberal Party of Victoria, and wants to know why it faked a copyright claim over the photos in order to shut down the account. Ms O'Dwyer's office has not responded to questions or a request for an interview. Follow us on Twitter