Victorian Liberal candidate for the seat of Bendigo West Jack Lyons has quit over a series of "offensive" comments he posted on Facebook.

News Limited published some of Mr Lyons' Facebook comments that included derogatory comments about women and people from Africa and China.

In a text message to ABC Central Victoria, Mr Lyons apologised over the comments and said he believed they had been printed off and handed to the media on Monday.

In it, he told breakfast host Jonathan Ridnell that "these pages were removed from my fb page over 2 yrs ago, deleted, they were printed off and given to the herald sun yesterday, they were jokes not intended to offend anyone".

The message continued: "I'm deeply embarrassed and apologetic and I've obviously rattled someone's cage. Thank you."



The Government had been confident of winning the marginal seat held by Labor.

Premier Denis Napthine said the Liberal Party had taken strong action against Mr Lyons over the racist and sexist social media posts.

Dr Napthine said the issues were not raised during the Party's usual vetting process, and he was confident the controversy has not destroyed the Party's chance of winning the seat.

"We'll continue to work hard in all our seats right across Victoria, we'll be putting forward a new candidate for Bendigo West giving people choice and options because Bendigo is poorly represented by the current candidate," Dr Napthine said.

In a statement, the Liberal Party's Victorian director Damien Mantach last night said Mr Lyons' comments were made in a closed Facebook group and were meant as a joke.

"Jack Lyons has tonight withdrawn his candidacy as the Liberal Party candidate for Bendigo West," Mr Mantach said.

"The majority of the comments were written as jokes and posted in a closed Facebook page some years before he became a member of the Liberal Party.

"However, Mr Lyons acknowledges the comments are juvenile and offensive. He has apologised unreservedly."

'Premier needs to apologise': Labor

Labor MP for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said Mr Lyon's comments were not acceptable.

"Denis Napthine needs to apologise to the voters of the Bendigo community for ever having pre-selected the now dumped candidate for Bendigo West, this is the second Liberal candidate who's had to resign because of these views," Ms Allan said.

Last week another Victorian Liberal candidate, Aaron Lane, resigned over a string of sexist and homophobic tweets.

He was preselected in May to contest the Western Victoria region in the Upper House.