One Nation Victoria leader Warren Pickering defends candidate vetting after two dumped for offensive comments

Detailed summary

One Nation’s Victorian leader has warned people with “nefarious intent” have been surging to the party over the past year or two.

One Nation Victoria leader Warren Pickering has defended his party’s vetting process after two candidates were disendorsed by the party for offensive social media posts.

Mr Pickering addressed an event hosted by the Melbourne Press Club and Rural Press Club of Victoria on Thursday afternoon, giving a 25-minute speech about the party’s policy platform.

The One Nation leader was questioned about his party’s vetting process just days after its ex-candidate for Preston, Franco Guardiani, was disendorsed for comments appearing to praise Adolf Hitler.

The sacking comes after One Nation’s Melbourne candidate Matthew Collins resigned from the party earlier this month for “offensive” comments made on social media.

Questioned about his party’s candidate vetting, Mr Pickering said One Nation was “very happy with our vetting process”, but that the party would continue to refine and improve it.

“No party in the history of this country has enjoyed the exponential growth of this party in such a short space of time,” he said.

“That obviously presents some serious challenges and opportunities to our opponents.”

Mr Pickering said One Nation had also “seen a lot of people join this party with nefarious intent in the last year or two”, without elaborating.

He sought to highlight that this was not just an issue his party was dealing with, saying the Victorian Liberals had disendorsed three candidates this election cycle.

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