Fifteen candidates have either been sacked or stood down ahead of the federal election as a string of scandals plagues contenders across the political spectrum.
From rape jokes and Islamophobic comments to anti-Semitic remarks, the controversies have involved candidates from a number of parties.
Liberal candidate Jessica Whelan came under fire over a series of Facebook posts made in her name, which advocated for Muslim women to be sold into slavery. She stepped down on Friday.
Labor candidate and former school teacher Luke Creasey quit on the same day over jokes made on Facebook about his friends ‘roughly taking’ a woman’s virginity.
Earlier in the week One Nation candidate Steve Dickson resigned after footage emerged of him making inappropriate comments at a strip club in the United States.
Dumped Liberal candidate Jessica Whelan came under fire over a series of Facebook posts made in her name, which advocated for Muslim women to be sold into slavery
Labor candidate and former school teacher Luke Creasey quit on the same day over jokes made on Facebook about his friends ‘roughly taking’ a woman’s virginity
Ms Whelan was accused in Parliament of advocating the genital mutilation of Muslim women and selling them as slaves, and of saying Tasmanians ‘don’t bloody want’ to take in Syrian refugees.
A Facebook profile under the candidate’s name recently commented on a post about US police officer Mohamed Noor, saying: ‘He’s a filthy Muslim!’
Her second alleged remark was under a Reclaim Australia Rally’s Facebook post about Iraqi and Syrian refugees being settled in New South Wales.
‘Don’t bloody send them to Tasmania. We don’t want them. Nick McKim, the biggest waste of space in politics, does not represent Tasmanians,’ the same account wrote.
Ms Whelan has denied the allegations, but stepped down as the candidate for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons.
One Nation’s Steve Dickson was led to resign from the party after footage showed the Queensland leader groping dancers at a Washington DC strip club.
The recording was captured by an undercover journalist and was leaked to Nine’s A Current Affair, which broadcast the footage on Monday night.
Mr Dickson, who is married, called one of the dancers a ‘bitch’ before describing her as ‘hot’ and could be heard saying Asian women don’t know what they’re doing during sex and ‘white women f*** a whole lot better’.
Liberal candidate Jeremy Hearn was also dumped by the party after a series of anti-Muslim comments came to light.
The House of Representatives candidate for Victoria state wrote online in 2016 that taxpayers should not fund Muslim schools because they were ‘fomenting rebellion against the government’.
One Nation’s Steve Dickson was led to resign from the party after footage showed the Queensland leader groping dancers at a Washington DC strip club in the US
Peter Killin, who was also running for the House in Victoria, resigned from the party after secretly attacking gay government lawmaker Tim Wilson (pictured) online in December and calling for party members to do more to prevent gays from being elected
Peter Killin, who was also running for the House in Victoria, resigned from the party after secretly attacking gay government lawmaker Tim Wilson online in December and calling for party members to do more to prevent gays from being elected.
Liberal candidate Murray Angus, 71, was disendorsed after breaking party rules.
The candidate for Corio in Geelong, Victoria, told News Corp papers he thought Labor opponent Richard Marles was a ‘good bloke’.
Helen Jackson was dumped as the candidate for Cooper in Victoria as she was an employee of Australia Post.
Labor candidate Mr Creasey resigned from his party after it emerged he once joked on Facebook about his friends ‘roughly taking’ a woman’s virginity.
The 29-year-old faced calls to step down for sharing porn and rape memes and insulting working class voters on Facebook in 2012.
In the posts in 2012, Mr Creasey shared one meme titled ‘overly attached girlfriend’ which read: ‘Hey I just met you / If you don’t date me / You’ll go to prison / I’ll say you raped me.’
Another meme he shared, designed to insult people with concerns about immigration, said: ‘Complains refugees waste tax dollars / Uses Centrelink money to buy drugs and alcohol.’
Mr Creasey also insulted working class voters in Scott Morrison’s south Sydney seat with a post that read: ‘Endorsement by those who call the Sutherland Shire home is not something that anyone with decency should aspire to.’
He also shared a link to porn involving the sexual kink pegging.
Another Liberal candidate, Jeremy Hearn, was dumped by the party after a series of anti-Muslim comments came to light
Labor candidate Wayne Kurnoth was dumped following a string of bizarre social media posts including sharing an anti-Semitic rant on Facebook
In the latest post to emerge, he joked about watching a female friend have sex with several people and wanting somebody to ‘roughly take her virginity’.
Labor candidate Wayne Kurnoth was dumped following a string of bizarre social media posts including sharing an anti-Semitic rant on Facebook.
Mr Kurnoth, who was set to run for the party in the Northern Territory, was given the boot by Labor after it was revealed that he shared a video by controversial British lecturer David Icke.
In the clip, Icke claims that the world is being run by shape-shifting Jewish lizards.
Mr Kurnoth shared the conspiracy theory – in which Icke also alleged that the Rothschild banking family are controlling the world – on his Facebook page in December 2015, according to The Australian.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten might still be leading the polls, but the Labor leader has not been able to avoid the scandal brought to his party by its candidates
Mr Kurnoth was already under pressure after being caught posting an image of Malcolm Turnbull beheading ABC journalist Emma Alberici, and making offensive remarks about former MP Natasha Griggs.
Labor candidate Melissa Parke quit the party after a controversial speech which outraged the Jewish community.
The candidate for Curtin at Perth, Western Australia, described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as ‘worse than the South African system of apartheid’ while speaking to pro-Palestinian activists last month.
Labor’s Mary Ross and the Liberal party’s Kate Oski, Vaishali Ghosh, Courtney Nguyen and Sam Kayal all pulled out over citizenship uncertainty, as did the Nationals’ James Harker-Mortlock.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal party has been forced to deal with the inappropriate social media posts of candidates