The Victorian Liberal Party has dumped Jeremy Hearn as its candidate for the seat of Isaacs over a conspiracy-laden anti-Muslim rant he posted online last year.

Key points: Jeremy Hearn had previously suggested Muslim Australians were hiding their true intentions

He has since apologised, describing his comments as "not right"

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said social media presented new challenges in the vetting of candidates

The Liberal hopeful's comments included several suggestions Muslim Australians were hiding their true intentions, which he said were to overthrow the Australian Government and introduce Sharia law.

Speaking to reporters in Perth, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed Mr Hearn had been disendorsed.

He said Mr Hearn had been preselected late because of challenges relating to section 44 of the constitution, which relates to foreign citizenship.

Mr Morrison said social media presented new challenges for the Liberal Party in the vetting of candidates.

"This is something I will be expecting the party to be working on and improving their processes," he said.

Victorian Liberals are privately furious with the organisational wing for failing to vet Mr Hearn properly and say he is emblematic of the factional war that has deeply divided the party.

Mr Hearn is associated with figures on the religious right, who have been accused of stacking Liberal branches with Mormons and conservative Christians.

One source told the ABC the party should be running a strong candidate in Isaacs, given it is on a margin of 3 per cent, but had now effectively handed the seat to the Labor incumbent Mark Dreyfus.

Mr Hearn apologised for his comments when they came to light but Labor continued to pursue him.

Victorian Liberal leader Michael O'Brien, who took over the top job after last year's disastrous state election, said the comments were "appalling".

"I reject them entirely. I reject them absolutely. In my mind those views have no place in the Liberal Party at all," he said.



Labor attacks 'pattern of absolute extremism'

Liberal Minister Alan Tudge described Mr Hearn's comments as offensive and said they were not shared within the Liberal Party.

"His views have no place within the Liberal Party," he told Sky News.

Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews said the candidate was an example of "a pattern of absolute extremism" emerging during the federal campaign.

"It's not simply the appalling extremist views of the Liberal Party candidate for Isaacs, it's also [the] preference arrangement with people like One Nation," he said, referring to a reported preference deal between the National Party and Pauline Hanson's party.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has distanced himself and the Liberal Party from One Nation, but leader of the National Party Michael McCormack defended his party's dealings with it.

"You have to do what it takes to get votes and to win at an election," he said at the National Press Club this week.

"And the fact is that the National Party policies, probably, closer align with One Nation, than they ever were with the Greens or Labor."

Battle to win progressive Victoria

Labor has been calling for Mr Hearn to be sacked after his comments were made public by the Herald Sun newspaper.

Mr Dreyfus, who has held Isaacs since 2007, welcomed the dumping.

But he said it was indicative of broader problems in the Liberal Party's vetting of candidates.

"This man should never have been preselected by a mainstream political party in Australia in the first place," he said.

"It thought that it was OK to preselect someone who had expressed these abhorrent, Islamophobic views."

The Liberals are facing an uphill battle in Victoria, the most progressive state, where the party is expecting to lose at least two to three seats on May 18.

Before being selected in Isaacs, Mr Hearn had also sought preselection in the blue-ribbon seat of Higgins, being vacated by Kelly O'Dwyer.