Candidates drop like flies in week of scandal

So many political scandals have erupted this week, it’s hard to keep up. These are the candidates who have been dumped.

It’s been a week full of political scandal centred on candidates’ bad behaviour.

Controversies have come thick and fast over the past few days, from homophobic attacks, to anti-Muslim and sexist posts.

If you’re having trouble keeping track of the candidate shenanigans and scandals, we’ve provided you a summary, complete with all updates as they unfold.

JESSICA WHELAN, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR LYONS

In less than 18 hours, Scott Morrison went from staunchly supporting Jessica Whelan, the now-former Liberal candidate for Lyons in Tasmania, to saying she had to go.

The Prime Minister has defended his handling of Ms Whelan, who quit before she was dumped for making offensive anti-Muslim statements on social media.

“As we followed through that matter … it became clear there were other posts, there were no explanations (for),” Mr Morrison said.

Alleged Facebook post from Liberal candidate for Lyons, Jessica Whelan.

Another comment reported to come from Ms Whelan who’s since quit.

She became the third dumped Liberal Party candidate in days.

The controversy erupted yesterday with a report in The Mercury newspaper containing posts from Ms Whelan, including one suggesting women should have their genitalia mutilated.

“Round them up Donald, cut their clitoris’ off & sell them to Muslims in Muslim countries & cancel their passports. You’ll make a mint,” the comment read.

A spokesperson for Ms Whelan told the newspaper the screenshots of the comments had been doctored in an attempt to smear her.

She maintains she did not make the “vulgar post” reported but accepts that she made some of the other posts in question.

Ms Whelan rushed to a waiting car to avoid questions from the travelling media pack. Picture: Gary Ramage

TONY HANLEY, UNITED AUSTRALIA PARTY CANDIDATE FOR BEAN

Posts have emerged from a Facebook account in the name of Tony Hanley, running for Bean in Canberra’s south.

The posts, published by the ABC today, include comments calling Saudi Arabians “tea towel heads”, children of taxi drivers “future terrorists”, same-sex attracted women as “fem-nasties”, “dykes”, “big fat fugly chicks” and “Dolly Birds FEMBOTS”.

The page has since been deleted and Mr Hanley has said the posts were “defendable” given his record of good work in the Canberra community.

The Clive Palmer-led party has not responded to questions on the posts either.

LUKE CREASEY, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR MELBOURNE

Luke Creasey has quit the Labor Party following a series of damaging revelations about his social media activity.

The candidate apologised for sharing rape jokes and pornography on his Facebook page.

While he said the posts did not reflect his current views, he understood they were damaging.

“I think this is a really important lesson for young people that your social media footprint will follow you,” Mr Creasey said in a statement.

While he was running in the seat of Melbourne against Greens incumbent Adam Bandt, Mr Creasey was sprung for a series of questionable posts first exposed by The Australian.

Among the content was a rape joke that played on the Carly Rae Jepson hit Call Me Maybe.

“Hey I just met you, if you don’t date me, you’ll go to prison, I’ll say you raped me,” the meme read.

The meme Luke Creasey posted in 2012.

In 2012, he shared a meme that said: “Complains refugees waste tax dollars / Uses Centrelink money to buy drugs and alcohol.”

Another post linked to pornographic material.

Mr Creasey also took a swipe at the working class in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south, where Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the sitting MP.

“Endorsement by those who call the Sutherland Shire home is not something that anyone with decency should aspire to,” he wrote about Mr Morrison.

Mr Creasey apologised after the revelations.

“It’s been brought to my attention that some posts I shared on social media several years ago when I was in my early 20s have been circulated,” he said in a statement.

“What I said was stupid, immature and in no way reflects the views I hold today. I apologise for these posts which have been removed.”

Opposition leader Bill Shorten with Labor’s candidate for Melbourne, Luke Creasey. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

He discussed watching a female friend have sex with multiple people and for someone to “roughly take her virginity”.

“Can’t keep that girl away … or her clothes on. In fact she was just chilling on my couch (in) her towel just before. She was just saying how she wishes she had a bisexual education student to roughly take her virginity,” Mr Creasey wrote.

He then joked about several people having sex with the woman and letting him watch.

“We can all watch!” Mr Creasey wrote.

“Wait wait wait! You should all do her together. Golden opportunity… you’re a lucky man.”

But Mr Shorten is standing by him, arguing that he “was 22 at the time” and no longer held his contentious views.

“Stupid is stupid is stupid,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne today.

“He was 22 at the time. He’s mortified. He doesn’t hold those views now.”

SACHIN JOSHI, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR PATERSON

Liberal hopeful Sachin Joshi was caught saying women are to blame for the gender pay gap because they lack initiative and skill.

The Sydney Morning Heraldhas published a series of remarks made by Mr Joshi, including his belief that women aren’t interested in “money matters and other business-related stuff”.

“The main reason for the gender gap lies in the active interest (or lack of it) towards business skills/responsibilities,” he wrote on his LinkedIn candidate profile last October.

Mr Joshi, who works as a business coach in the medical community, also claimed that “women doctors” were less active and interested in pursuing business skills.

“In my interaction with many female doctors, I have observed that they put lesser priority on understanding money matters, dealing with staff issues, managing commercial aspects and other business-related ‘stuff’,” he wrote.

Labor MP Meryl Swanson holds the seat on a 10 per cent margin after winning it at the 2016 election. Prior to that, it was a safe Liberal electorate.

On Thursday Mr Joshi took to Facebook to respond to the article, saying he had made it his profession to help women bridge the gender pay gap.

“I have worked within the medical community for many years and have advocated strongly in support of equal pay for women in medicine,” he said.

“Women have been shown to surpass their male counterparts in every area including clinical care, communication and collaboration, while taking equal or bigger share of family responsibilities at the same time.

“The recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald completely misrepresents my position.

“If elected to parliament I will work to ensure that all women have the same leadership and economic opportunities available to men in order to address the pay gap.”

RELATED: Meet the perfect election candidate

RELATED: Stay up to date with what matters via our federal election page

PETER KILLIN, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR WILLS

Peter Killin has resigned after an extraordinary homophobic attack on prominent backbencher Tim Wilson.

Mr Killin made the remarks about Mr Wilson in the comments section of a blog by Christian right-wing figure Bill Muehlenberg, as first reported in The Age.

Another commenter, Michael Taouk, was complaining that the Liberal Party wasn’t doing enough to “remove preselection from that notorious homosexual Tim Wilson”.

Mr Killin replied: “Your observations about Mr T Wilson, federal member for Goldstein, are most pertinent at this point. Many of us will recall he was the openly homosexual who proposed to his boyfriend in parliment [sic].”

Victorian Liberal candidate Peter Killin has now resigned over anti-gay comments.

He lobbied fellow conservative Liberals to do more to prevent gay people from being elected.

“ONE LOUSY VOTE!” he said of Mr Wilson’s preselection.

“So, if you and I were there to participate in preselection the result = no homosexual MP.”

Mr Killin has also said he believes “the homosexual lifestyle” is “distressingly dangerous” and carries “appalling health risks”.

Follow today’s updates on Mr Killin live on our election blog

JEREMY HEARN, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR ISAACS

Jeremy Hearn was disendorsed as the Liberal’s candidate for Isaacs after a series of anti-Muslim comments were unearthed.

He wrote taxpayers should stop funding Muslim schools because they were plotting a “rebellion against the government”.

“A Muslim is a person who subscribes to an ideology which requires the following: killing or enslavement of the citizens of Australia if they do not become Muslim, replacing the Australian Government and legal systems with sharia, lying about their purposes to conceal their activities,” he wrote in a comment on an article published by Quadrant.

Jeremy Hearn criticised Muslims in a series of comments online.

He was dumped by the Liberal party this morning.

Mr Hearn wrote that “no oath of allegiance from a person following such an ideology can or should be accepted by the Australian Government”, and that Muslims were “clearly people of bad character”.

He also said Islamic ideology called for the “killing or enslavement of the citizens of Australia”.

Mr Hearn later apologised for the comments when they were unearthed by the Herald Sun.

Mr Hearn was dumped this morning after Labor shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus demanded Prime Minister Scott Morrison remove the candidate. Liberal party members also said his comments were “appalling”.

Dumped Liberal candidate Jeremy Hearn on the right.

ROSS MACDONALD, ONE NATION CANDIDATE FOR LEICHHARDT

Another candidate for One Nation has been embroiled in a sleazy scandal after social media posts emerged overnight of him groping the breast of a woman while on holiday in Thailand and sharing bizarre, sexual images.

Ross Macdonald, running for the right-wing party in the Queensland seat of Leichhardt, is the latest political hopeful to face questions about their treatment of women.

Sexist posts on social media depicting him grabbing the breasts of women while on holiday in Thailand were published in the Cairns Post today.

The bizarre posts come in the wake of Queensland One Nation leader Steve Dickson quitting over secret footage in a strip club.

It raises further questions about Pauline Hanson’s candidate vetting process.

RELATED: New One Nation sleaze scandal erupts

RELATED: Surprise reaction to Hanson’s tears

One of the sleazy pics that emerged today.

This was one of several questionable posts.

In this one he wrote: ‘What a heart.’

And in case that wasn’t enough, there are a few other candidates who have made headlines today. Keep in mind, there are still two and a half weeks of the campaign to go.

WAYNE KURNOTH, LABOR’S DUMPED SENATE HOPEFUL

Mr Kurnoth was the number two Senate pick in the Northern Territory until Monday, when he quit over his anti-Semitic Facebook posts about wild conspiracy theories.

The dumped candidate believes an alien race of Jewish lizard shapeshifters secretly controls the world.

Those posts came just days after he was forced to apologise for an Islamic State-inspired cartoon of an ABC journalist being beheaded by Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Shorten denied having met dumped Mr Kurnoth but then we found a picture of the pair of them.

ANGUS TAYLOR, LIBERAL ENERGY MINISTER

More laughable than controversial, Mr Taylor was sprung making a positive comment about himself, from himself, presumably because he forgot to login to his fake Facebook account.

STEWART HINE, UNITED AUSTRALIA PARTY CANDIDATE FOR NICHOLLS

Mr Hine tried to swap favourable media coverage for some of Clive Palmer’s advertising dollars.

ANDREW HASTIE, LIBERAL MP FOR CANNING

Mr Hastie continues to insist he never met with right-wing extremist and convicted criminal Neil Erikson, despite his Liberal colleague Ian Goodenough saying he did.

GLADYS LIU, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR CHISHOLM

Ms Liu referenced being an AFL ambassador, not once but twice during the campaign, despite quitting that role last year.