'Completely abhorrent': Julia Banks slams former Liberal colleague Gladys Liu

Former Liberal MP Julia Banks has slammed the party's candidate for the seat of Chisholm, accusing her former colleague Gladys Liu of "abhorrent and misleading" comments about LGBTI people.

But Ms Liu, the star candidate for the Melbourne seat vacated by Ms Banks, says she has been misrepresented after audio emerged of her saying some members of Australia's Chinese community felt LGBTI issues were "ridiculous rubbish".

Gladys Liu dubbed media reports quoting her on LGBTI issues as "fake news".Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Both Ms Liu and the Liberal Party deny the comments were her own views and say the candidate was merely representing the views of some members of the Chinese community.

"I reject any suggestion the comments reported in 2016 were my own views," Ms Liu said in a statement on Tuesday.

"At the time I was responding to a question about comments I had received from some members of the Chinese community. I firmly support equality across our community."

Ms Liu was a prominent activist against same-sex marriage and the Safe Schools anti-bullying program during Ms Banks' 2016 federal election campaign, mobilising the electorate's Chinese community through social media.

In the wake of the election, The Guardian reported that Ms Liu took credit for the social media campaign conducted entirely in Chinese on the WeChat app, designed to hurt Labor and boost Ms Banks' chances.

But Ms Banks, who resigned from the Liberal Party in the wake of Malcolm Turnbull's overthrow last year, and is vacating the seat of Chisholm to contest Flinders as an independent, distanced herself on Tuesday from Ms Liu's comments and her activities in 2016.

"I find her comments completely abhorrent," Ms Banks said.

"Her comments are made by her and had nothing to do with my campaign and my WeChat campaign was not managed by Gladys Liu.

"She was going off on her personal tangents and those posts were certainly not endorsed by me.

"My WeChat material was by me and my team and it was just a direct copy of my Facebook posts."

Julia Banks says Gladys Liu has exaggerated her involvement in her election success.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Most of the Chinese-Australian voters The Age spoke to in Box Hill on Tuesday were oblivious to the controversy.

Some said Ms Liu’s comments did not accurately represent sentiment in the Chinese community, which they said was "quite open" to same-sex marriage and LGBTI rights.

"If she said this, it will influence the image of the Liberals. It will make people think the Liberals understand what Chinese people think when actually they are wrong," Aki Wu, 30, said.

Aki Wu in Box Hill on Tuesday.Credit: Joe Armao

But he said it would not change his view of the party, because "it’s not one of my concerns". "She doesn’t represent me," he said of Ms Liu.

Tony Lim, 50, did not believe the comments represented the view of the Liberal party. "If it represented the view of the party that would be different," he said.

Tony Lim.Credit: Joe Armao

Others criticised Ms Liu for singling out the Chinese community, saying other communities shared similar views on LGBTI people.

"Some western politicians will use [Ms Liu's comments] to attack Chinese people," a woman, who requested to be known only as Lisa, said.

"For her to say that it makes me think twice about the Liberal party."

On Monday night The Guardian released audio of its interview with Ms Liu after the 2016 federal election that contained the controversial remarks.

"The Chinese people come to Australia because they want good education for their children, good environment, they want good things for their next generation, not to be destroyed - they use the word destroyed - by these sort of concepts of same-sex, transgender, intergender, crossgender, all this rubbish," Ms Liu told the interviewer.

"To them, this is just ridiculous rubbish."

The story re-emerged on the weekend at a candidates' forum after a question from the audience, with Ms Liu claiming The Guardian article was "fake news" and that she had been "misrepresented".

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Ms Liu's comments had been taken out context.

"Gladys has led an amazing Australian life," he said.

"Gladys came to this country in the mid-'80s, she studied, she became a speech pathologist, she's raised a family here, she's built businesses, she's worked with her community.

"As she said, at the time when she was campaigning for the previous Liberal candidate and now the current member, she was simply saying those were the views of that community."

Chisholm will be a hard-fought seat by both major parties, with Labor believing its candidate, Taiwanese-born Jennifer Yang, can regain the seat held by the Liberals by a notional 2.9 per cent following a redistribution.