A controversial candidate in a prized former Liberal Party seat has apologised after a YouTube video emerged in which she likened her lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's sport to standing up against the Holocaust.
Katherine Deves is the hand-picked Liberal in former prime minister Tony Abbott's seat of Warringah, pre-selected at the last minute after bitter factional infighting within the party.
She has attracted controversy in recent days and apologised earlier this week for now-deleted Twitter posts in which she described transgender children as "surgically mutilated and sterilised".
In a video from last year that has now emerged and was first reported by Guardian Australia, she appeared on the YouTube Channel of Irish television writer and anti-transgender activitist Graham Linehan in February last year.
In the video, which is still online, Ms Deves appeared to compare her campaigning to stop transgender people from competing in women's sport to those speaking out against the transportation of Jewish people to the Nazi death camps in World War II.
"I've always loved 20th-century history and I think many people would say to themselves, 'I'd never been to villages that stayed quiet, while the trains went past or whatever, I would have been part of the French Resistance, the underground, you know, I would be one of those people,'" she said in the video.
"And when all of this was happening, and no one was sort of speaking out, I thought, this is it. This is the moment in my life, where I'm going to have to stand up and say something against the status quo and against the establishment and say, 'I don't think this is right'.
In a statement, Ms Deves said she apologised for her comments.
"In my dedication to fighting for the rights of women and girls, my language has on occasion been unacceptable. It has hurt people and detracted from my arguments," the statement said.
"I apologise for such language and the hurt that I have caused. I commit to continuing the fight for the safety of girls and women in a respectful way."
In the video, she also said that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's sport could result in injury, death or assault.
"We don't want to get to that point where there's a young girl in a wheelchair or with an acquired brain injury or similar. So we're going to be looking at our options around that," Ms Deves said.
"There's also the safeguarding issue because it says in all the guidelines that you can go into the toilets, change rooms, overnight accommodation of your choice.
"And if you are a parent, say of a girl, and there's a male coach or manager who's claiming that they're a female, and they go on overnight accommodation, and you raise an objection, it will be your daughter kicked off the team."
Ms Deves — who is running against independent MP Zali Steggall — is the co-founder and spokeswoman for a group that wants to limit participation in women's sport to those who were born female.
In the video, she also voiced her support for NSW One Nation state MP Mark Latham's bill to ban the discussion of gender identity in schools, which was rejected by the state government.
When asked about her views, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday said Ms Deves raised "important issues and he "shares" her views.
On Wednesday afternoon, after reports of Ms Deves's deleted online comments emerged, Mr Morrison was asked which of her views he shared.
He said Ms Deves had apologised and explained that he supported the views of a private member's bill put forward by Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler.
"The government doesn't have any plans for that to be a government bill, it was a private member's bill, and I've told you very clearly what my views on that bill are," he said.
Ms Stegall earlier this week said her electoral opponent should be disendorsed, labelling the comments "ill-informed and offensive".
At the last election, old social media posts haunted candidates across the political divide.
A Liberal review of the last election recommended that aspiring politicians be trained at "candidate colleges" in a bid to prevent embarrassing disendorsements in the future.
Earlier on Thursday, before the video emerged, Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume said there was no need for Ms Deves to be dumped.
"I think that she's a very good candidate and she deserves an opportunity to make her case known, but at the same time, what we want to make sure is that our language is respectful and that our positions are clear," Ms Hume said.
"That's not the government's position, that is a candidate's personal opinion that she has since apologised for."
