The Liberal Party's candidate for the federal seat of Fremantle, Sherry Sufi, has resigned from his position in the wake of controversy over past comments he made about same-sex marriage and Indigenous constitutional recognition.

Key points: Sufi says he apologises if his comments caused offence

Sufi says he apologises if his comments caused offence Party will announce new candidate "ASAP"

Party will announce new candidate "ASAP" Labor disendorsed its Fremantle candidate Chris Brown last week

Labor disendorsed its Fremantle candidate Chris Brown last week Head to Australia Votes for more election coverage

He has apologised for a video and audio recording made in 2013, as reported in the Fremantle Herald, where he mocked his then boss MLA Michael Sutherland's accent and made sexually explicit comments.

Mr Sufi later resigned as his electorate officer after Mr Sutherland was made aware of the recording.

Mr Sufi, who has also quit as the chair of the WA Liberals' policy committee, said he wanted to avoid causing further distraction for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

In February, Mr Sufi told Buzzfeed that recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution was "a move to divide the country".

And in 2013, he linked same-sex marriage with polygamy and polyamory.

Turnbull distances himself from former candidate

Mr Sufi said the decision was made in the wake of the attention his comments had received.

"I apologise if my words and actions have caused offence to anyone. This was never my intent," Mr Sufi said.

"I am disappointed that I will not be seeing this campaign through, but I am putting the interests of the Liberal Party first. I want to avoid further distraction from the good work being done by the Prime Minister and his Liberal team."

On a visit to the seat earlier this week, Mr Turnbull was forced to distance himself from Mr Sufi's comments and explain why the then-candidate was not present at his media conference.

"This is a national announcement," Mr Turnbull said on Monday.

"I'm the Prime Minister and I hope he's out there engaging with the people of Fremantle and doing good door-knocking. [It's] very character-building. I've done it myself."

On Friday night Mr Sufi told Sky News his view on redefining marriage did not reflect his opinion towards a person's sexuality.

"That's just utter nonsense and I think it's quite disingenuous of the commentators that have been running commentary on Twitter and other media outlets, trying to paint me as a somebody who has a problem with homosexuality, that's absolutely not true," he said.

"These are all writings that were put out in 2013 and 2014 that are coming back to invite a discussion that probably would be best saved for another time."

Mr Sufi is the second major party candidate casualty for the seat, with Labor having disendorsed its former candidate Chris Brown for failing to disclose criminal convictions.

Mr Brown was replaced by Labor with the port city's Deputy Mayor Josh Wilson.

Labor holds Fremantle by a margin of 5.4 per cent, with the incumbent MP Melissa Parke due to retire at the election.

Greens candidate for Fremantle Kate Davis said locals were already frustrated with the major parties.

"I think it's disappointing for the people of Fremantle that both Liberal and Labor seem to be in disarray as we head into this election," she said.

"When we've been out doorknocking people have said that they're already frustrated with the politics of Canberra, with the parties focused on politics rather than getting things done, and I just think this will mean people are even more frustrated with the old parties."

A Liberal Party spokesman said the party would announce a new candidate for Fremantle "ASAP", likely within the next couple of days.