Sometimes you just have to shake your head and wonder what people were thinking.

Over the past two weeks the Liberal Party of Australia as lost two candidates over social media gaffes that were both embarrassing and avoidable.

Two birds, one fate

Last week state Liberal candidate Aaron Lane was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight after homophobic and offensive comments he'd made on social media surfaced.

Lane allegedly used the term “fa–ots” on Twitter, where he also referred to Labor veteran Simon Crean “a giant C”.

Premiere Dennis Napthine was quick to distance himself from the candidate's behaviour, and Lane soon took himself out of the contest for Western Victoria. 

This week, it happened again.

Deja blues

Jack Lyons, the Liberal Party candidate contending the marginal seat of Bendigo West, has just resigned over a disastrous Facebook fail.

Hundreds of racist, sexist and offensive posts were allegedly discovered on Lyons' Facebook Page.

Some of the posts supposedly claim Bendigo “needs an enema”, while Mr Lyons referred to the city's historic Golden Dragon Museum as “ching chong gardens”.

Lyons withdrew from the race within hours of the posts going public, and Premiere Napthine was wheeled out again in damage control mode, declaring that Lyons' views had no place in society. 

Vote of no confidence

Following the dual resignations, the Liberal Party contacted all current candidates to determine if any had undeclared social media pages. The party also called an emergency meeting to outline appropriate social media use.

With an election just months away, the timing couldn't have been much worse. 

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