"(He said) a certain tweet had been brought to his attention, he wanted it removed, said he'd send me an email about it with more detail tomorrow morning," Mr Semple said. "I then basically saw that, had a conversation with my wife, and basically went, 'If they're upset about something I said in September, and I delete it, then what stops whoever is digging into my social media from finding another one?' " Mr Semple said the offending tweet was one from September 27, 2016, which featured a man wearing a T-shirt with the letters "LGBT" accompanied by images of the statue of liberty, a gun, beer and breasts. Mr Semple had added the comment: "Now that's a LGBT cause I can get behind. Queue Pink Mafia Outrage in 3, 2, 1... #auspol"

The tweet only received two retweets and six likes at the time, with one reply, which said: "What will happen if nobody cares?" Mr Semple has not deleted the tweet. "It's still there, I'm not embarrassed about the tweet at all," he said. Mr Semple said he advised Mr Savage of his decision on Monday night, tweeted his decision to withdraw and sent an official letter to the party on Tuesday morning. "I just get the feeling that even if I agree [and delete the tweet], and all of that, something would come up again and again and that becomes an unstable event for everybody concerned," he said.

"I knew if you succumb to this one and you take it off ... someone will find another and another and another. "You don't need to be a rocket scientist ... You find one that's not PC, I'm pretty sure they're going to find a second tweet." Mr Semple said he was a bit disappointed the party did not go into bat for him. "It was a humorous tweet I sent out, whether other people would have found it humorous, that's up for debate," he said. "They could have said, 'you did a silly thing... It's not a reflection on the party, it's not going to happen again, but we defend Mr Semple's right to have an opinion.' "

Mr Semple, a stockbroker, sent in a submission in opposition to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and called for the Australian Human Rights Commission to be abolished. "18C is being used as a weapon to limit free speech and as a tool to extract money in a 'legal shake-down' of people who preferred to pay confidential settlements rather than risk a public fight to prove they were not racist," he wrote. "If you want to know who rules over you, simply fight out who you are not allowed to criticise. Is that the Australia we all want to live in?"

Mr Semple said he had no ill feelings towards the party, and the matter was over, but he was speaking to media to set the record straight. "I am a big supporter of Senator Hanson and Senator Malcolm Roberts and I believe in what the party is trying to do," he said. "I think it's a little sad that they're so overly protective of the brand, maybe to the point of paranoia when it comes to freedom of speech." Mr Semple said he disclosed his Twitter account to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in November.

Mr Semple is remaining coy over whether he will run as an independent, saying he has "Christmas to think about that and a lot of other things". Other tweets are critical of the burqa, Islam, include commentary of the US election and the "pink mafia", while in another Mr Semple writes: "Woman with unshaven armpits...not cool at all." Mr Savage was contacted for comment.