By Alesha Capone
Greens candidate Jay Dessi has stepped down as candidate for the seat of Lalor in the upcoming federal election over offensive social media posts.
Mr Dessi released a statement last week apologising for any offence that the posts may have caused.
The posts, which date from 2012 to 2015, included sexist and racist comments on Facebook.
Greens leader Richard Di Natalie said the posts were “clearly unacceptable”.
A Victorian Greens spokesperson said that “… social media has created new challenges for all parties in the candidate selection process, particularly for younger candidates who have grown up using social media”.
“Following the Victorian election, the Australian Greens provided additional resources to state parties to assist in the vetting of social media profiles.
“As a grassroots organisation, we do rely upon the assistance of candidates during this process.” The spokesperson said that when it came to Mr Dessi, “some unsavoury comments from several years ago were not identified”. “The Victorian Greens apologise for this error,” the spokesperson said.
Alesha Capone
