Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy is standing by a newly minted Liberal candidate for the November state election, as more of her controversial views surface.
The state Liberals have faced intense scrutiny since endorsing Melton City councillor and high school teacher Moira Deeming for upper house preselection at the weekend.
If the move is ticked off by the party's administration committee, the mother-of-four will replace outspoken MP Bernie Finn as the first name on their ticket for the Western Metropolitan Region.
Mr Finn was booted from the party in May and appointed Democratic Labour Party leader, before publicly endorsing Ms Deeming as his replacement, describing her as a "good friend".
Like the veteran MP, Ms Deeming has been a vocal anti-abortion campaigner and critic of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
She also previously took aim at Victoria's Safe Schools program to promote inclusive environments for LGBTQI students and their families, describing its architects as "pedophilia apologists".
"I was reading all the things you've got to do for the trans kids and the homosexual kids and I thought, 'you're actually teaching them to be really narcissistic'," Ms Deeming said in a September 2020 interview.
Former Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury, who served the Western Metropolitan Region from 2010 to 2014, has since quit as a party member, in part over Ms Deeming's preselection.
She was absent from an opposition media event in Tarneit on Friday, as Mr Guy brushed off the relevance of her past statements.
"I'm not interested in comments she's made in the past; I'm interested in what she's doing as a candidate," he told reporters.
Asked if he thought it was fair to call LGBTQI students narcissists, Mr Guy said: "Of course I don't. Any commentary on any of these matters should be respectful and I've made that very clear.
"But I'm not going to dredge out comments from anyone from years and years ago."
The remarks were made before she was endorsed, Mr Guy added.
"You've asked about a post in 2020 - give me a break," he said.
But senior government minister Danny Pearson claimed Mr Guy had spurned an opportunity to call out Ms Deeming's "deeply offensive" comments.
"These comments were made two years ago ... and they reflect on this person's character," he said.
