AN innocent note from a six-year-old Warrnambool girl to the Prime Minister has erupted into a social media storm.
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Tony Abbott tweeted a picture of himself reading the note which was handed to him during his visit to the region last week.
The Prime Minister was in the south-west to launch the agricultural competitiveness white paper and attend Liberal Party functions.
He was dining in the same Warrnambool restaurant as six-year-old Eva and her grandmother when the little girl decided to pen a note to the PM.
It read: “Dear Tony, I love wot are doing (sic). I watch TV with my nana I like you I hope people stop bullying you. Love Eva”.
The PM also tweeted a picture of the note which started an online frenzy with people saying he should read notes from little girls in detention centres.
It escalated over the coming day with some people suggesting the six-year-old should be captured and “re-programmed” or that she had been brainwashed.
A hashtag, #LettersFromEva, has also taken off on the social media site, with people writing faux notes to the PM signed Love Eva.
Some even went to the lengths of sourcing the same Smiggle-brand notepad Eva used and imitated her handwriting.
One post says the PM had taught Eva how to lie, not keep her promises, fear foreigners and that it didn’t matter if the polar ice caps melted.
Eva’s Father Leigh, who is on an overseas holiday, contacted The Standard and said it was disgusting some people found it OK to use his daughter as a political tool.
He said it was ridiculous to suggest his daughter had any political allegiance.
“She’s a little girl. She doesn’t know anything about politics,” he said.
“To her, Tony Abbott is a famous man she sees on TV. So to see him in the same restaurant was really exciting for her.
“The Prime Minister obviously found the note really sweet, so he tweeted it out. But what’s happened since is just not on.”
Leigh said his daughter was going through a phase where she loves writing letters and notes.
“We hope she doesn’t see any of this and get discouraged,” he said.
“She wasn’t coached to write anything, she’s a perceptive kid.
“I guess in her view, the coverage of the Prime Minister, she thinks he is being bullied.”