Scott Harrison was working largely on campaign of Liberal candidate Tony McManus in the Victorian electorate of Lara

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A political campaigner working for the Liberal party in Victoria has resigned after his history of links to white supremacist neo-Nazi groups was revealed.

Scott Harrison was largely working on the campaign of Liberal candidate Tony McManus in the electorate of Lara. McManus did not immediately return calls from Guardian Australia for comment but the party issued a statement to say they were unaware of Harrison’s previous affiliations.

“His comments are unacceptable and do not reflect the views of the Liberal party,” the statement said. “He has now resigned from the party, effective immediately.”

Harrison is also a former “reverend” of the Creativity Movement, now known as the Church of Creativity which, according to their website, believes “white people are the creators of all worthwhile culture and civilisation”.

In an article Harrison wrote for the organisation in 2010, he describes the Port Arthur, Tasmania massacre, in which 35 people were killed by gunman Martin Bryant, as “another Jewish lie”.

“It should be a key objective of Creators to awaken the White race to the realities of the Port

Arthur massacre and the need for White people to remain armed and dangerous in the eyes of our racial enemies,” he wrote. “An armed White race, awakened with the creed and program of Creativity is the worst nightmare of the global Jewish conspiracy.”

He also promotes a “Festival of White Racial Pride” in the newsletter.

Guardian Australia was unable to contact Harrison, but he told Fairfax Media that he no longer held those views.

“I completely distance myself from my past ideology,” he told Fairfax. “I now realise how insane it was. I now believe in racial equality and gay marriage.”

Harrison describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as “an intelligent and motivated IT professional, working for a small IT service provider in North Geelong.” He is named as a vice-president of the Geelong-region Young Liberals, and lists his interests as European history, Austrian economics and camping.

The scandal comes less than two weeks before the Victorian state election on 29 November.