St Albans was at the time a new safe seat for the Labor Party in Melbourne's western suburbs, having arisen through an electoral redistribution.

The Ombudsman found that Suleyman then attempted to cancel funding for the project associated with Seitz, a move that would have cost the council more than $300,000.

[13] These events led to Seitz invoking Parliamentary privilege to criticise Suleyman on the floor of the Victorian Parliament.

[14] Regarding the allegations made by Seitz in parliament, the Ombudsman found that Natalie had indeed directed the council CEO to withdraw funding from development works at the Keilor Lodge Reserve, which 'had the CEO complied with the direction, (would have put the council) in breach of contract and at significant financial risk'.

In addition, I was concerned that the Brimbank officers acceded to Cr Suleyman's ‘demand’ without referring the matter to the whole council.

"[18]Other findings regarding Suleyman's conduct included:[19] The Local Government Inspectorate took no action against Natalie in the wake of the report.

[25] Natalie has received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland,[26] and an award from the Australian Society of Polish Jews and their descendants named after Henryk Sławik.

[27] Her father, Hakki Suleyman, is the Chair of the Migrant Resource Centre North West and the convenor of the Turkish Cypriot program on 3ZZZ community radio.