Mr Kunde had been contesting the south-west NSW seat of Farrer, a very safe Coalition seat held by Health Minister Sussan Ley, which has never been won by Labor. He withdrew following inquiries into his background by News Corp. Mr Kunde, pictured at an ANU lecture with Uthman Badar (left) and Lawrence Krauss (right) in 2012, has resigned as Labor's candidate for Farrer. In a statement, he said he had decided to stand aside in order not to distract from Labor's campaign. "I am not homophobic and I believe in Australian democracy. I disagree with the way my comments are being reported, in fact this distortion is exactly what I have warned about," Mr Kunde said. Mr Kunde said he had been misrepresented by News Corp in a front page expose on Monday, and that he should not be held accountable for the views of his acquaintances.

He said he had no involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir and that it would be impossible to contest a democratic election while being a member of the group. "The way that this has been presented is not only unfair but completely false," he told the ABC. Hizb ut-Tahrir's controversial spokesman Uthman Badar Credit:Edwina Pickles Mr Kunde also said he had "absolutely no homophobic convictions" and his lecture had ultimately concluded there was no good reason to oppose same-sex marriage. Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international organisation, has rattled cages in Australia with its firebrand Islamist politics. In 2014, Mr Badar was due to present a lecture at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney titled "Honour Killings are Morally Justified". It was cancelled after widespread outrage and a planned boycott were highlighted by Fairfax Media. In a subsequent opinion piece in September 2014 for the ABC, Mr Kunde wrote that Mr Badar had been subject to a "particularly vulgar ad hominem" attack. He described Mr Badar as "a trusted friend" and "brilliant economics graduate", and expressed his disappointment that more people had not come to his friend's defence.