One Nation’s candidate for Melbourne has resigned over a series of highly sexualised and offensive tweets, including one in which he claimed to have never asked a woman for “any form” of sexual consent.
Matthew Collins, who has previously promoted anti-Muslim rhetoric and COVID-19 conspiracy theories online, withdrew his candidacy on Friday after it was revealed he had shared pornographic jokes and offensive statements on social media.
In a statement provided to this masthead, the 35-year-old apologised for his past comments and described them as “unacceptable”.
“They are not reflective of who I am as a person now, and I deeply regret ever having made them,” Collins said.
According to a series of X (Twitter) posts obtained by this masthead before Collins shut down his account, and before he was selected as a candidate, he posted in February 2020: “I’ve never once asked any woman for any form of consent, ever,”
“It’s all implied by a woman’s actions and attraction levels which any astute man will be paying attention to.”
In another post, Collins suggested sexual consent was “cringe” and joked about the number of times he had previously asked a woman for consent.
Another X post features a lewd comment about a woman’s body parts and a reference by Collins about his sexual activities during the pandemic.
Collins’ social media posts have also previously called to “decolonise” parts of the Muslim world and referenced Christian military campaigns against Muslims in parts of what is now Europe.
A One Nation spokesperson said the party had been made aware of a number of “offensive comments” posted on social media by Collins and had accepted his resignation.
“Our party does not condone these comments,” the spokesperson said.
According to the party’s candidate profile for Collins, he is newly married and works in sales. He was running as a candidate Greens-held seat to restore community safety and ease cost-of-living pressures.
The latest Resolve Political Monitor conducted for this masthead shows that One Nation was currently polling at a 23 per cent primary vote , suggesting that the party will for the first time have a significant presence in the next Victorian parliament.
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