A Facebook advertisement posted by the Federal Liberal Party, which links the issues of border protection and crime in Western Sydney, has drawn hundreds of critical comments since being posted yesterday morning.

Featuring a crime scene tape against a black background, the ad highlights the recent spate of shootings in Western Sydney and asks: “if Labor can’t even control our borders, then how can they control street crime in our suburbs?”

At the time of posting, the advertisement has received hundreds of comments and shares, many criticising the political party linking Federal issue of border protection with the state issue of police and law enforcement.

Many of the social media users have also sought to highlight that policing and crime issues are managed by the Liberal state government of Barry O’Farrell.

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The advertisement has also been ‘liked’ on Facebook more than 650 times.

Facebook and social media are increasingly being used by the major political parties to circumvent the traditional media in the run up to the upcoming federal election, which is expected to held on September 14.

Only two weeks ago Labor was boasting about the success of graphic released on Facebook which showed the size of Australia’s government debt relative to other countries. The political party claimed it was viewed by more than 850,000 people in just a week.

The Labor and Liberal parties have yet to respond to requests for comment at the time of posting.

Nic Christensen