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The ACT Greens say they will not disendorse a candidate who made a blog post comparing Osama bin Laden to Jesus in the upcoming territory election.
The ABC revealed that 20-year-old candidate for the electorate of Murrumbidgee, Harini Rangarajan, wrote a blog post in August 2023 where she compared the terrorist figure and September 11 mastermind to Jesus Christ.
An ACT Greens spokeswoman said the candidate's post was a "fiction" and a "creative writing exercise" and that Ms Rangarajan and her party abhor terrorism.
Party leader Shane Rattenbury said on Thursday scrutiny of the post was a distraction, which was disappointing, but the post itself was "not a reflection of our party as a whole".
ACT Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury says he first heard about the blog post when his office was contacted by the ABC. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Mr Rattenbury said the ACT Greens had a vetting process which included potential candidates providing all social media accounts to the party, but "the particular pieces were missed in that vetting process".
"There's clearly been an element of processes letting down our party in these circumstances, and it's something that we will need to consider for future rounds of vetting," he said.
Mr Rattenbury said he only heard about the post for the first time on Wednesday when his office was contacted by the ABC.
He acknowledged the post would be "concerning and confronting" for members of the community, but said Ms Rangarajan had been very clear they were creative works that "do not reflect her personal views".
Mr Rattenbury also affirmed his party's commitment to peace and non-violence as one of its four pillars, and said Ms Rangarajan had been clear in her commitment to them.
The controversy around Ms Rangarajan follows questions raised about the handling of concerns about former Greens MLA Johnathan Davis, who resigned from the Legislative Assembly in 2023 after being accused of sexual misconduct.
ABC NEWS Verify connected this Substack account to ACT Greens candidate for the seat of Murrumbidgee, Harini Rangarajan. (Substack: @sivagami)
An investigation by ABC NEWS Verify linked Ms Rangarajan to an account called "Sivagama Sundari" on Substack, a newsletter and blogging platform.
Under this pseudonym, Ms Rangarajan published posts on a range of subjects including politics and fan fiction.
In a blog dated August 20, 2023 titled "On martyrdom", the post read "I day dream about dying brutally for my country, my family, my lovers".
The post goes on to write about a Hindu epic figure saying: "… I fell in love with him because there is nothing more courageous than recognising your role in the grand scheme of things and embracing its consequences."
"I've gone on to idolise several other martyrs- Bhagat Singh, Husayn ibn Ali, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Che Guevara, Jesus Christ, Balachandran Prabhakaran, Joan of Arc, Osama Bin Laden etc," the post said.
Left is the original version of Ms Rangarajan's post and right shows how it was edited after she was contacted by the ABC. Difference checker tool used was DALIL. (ABC News)
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who leads a coalition government alongside the ACT Greens, said the posts were an issue for that party to deal with.
"Really a matter for the Greens political party to explain ... their vetting process, from what I've heard of media reports, they were aware of this before pre-selecting the candidate," Mr Barr said.
"They're not views that I think would be shared by the overwhelming majority of Canberrans."
The chief minister also compared the revelations to posts made by an account belonging to Liberal candidate Darren Roberts, which shared derogatory comments about Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe and transgender participation in sport under the pseudonym "Bert Poppins".
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says the post is an issue for the ACT Greens to deal with. (ABC News: Donal Sheil)
"I do note the age of the candidate, as a 20-year-old, is somewhat different from a man in their mid 50s with a serial set of social media posts that were almost universally offensive," Mr Barr said.
"Whether it's creative writing or otherwise, probably best to have removed that and to be clear that that's not something that either the candidate or the party stands for," Mr Barr said.
When asked at a press conference about Ms Rangarajan's comments, Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee said she hadn't seen the Greens candidate's posts.
"I think that it's up to each party to constantly be looking at the way that they vet candidates, and I'm very proud of the Canberra Liberals team that I lead," Ms Lee said.
Earlier this week, Ms Rangarajan apologised after she was filmed removing a Liberal flyer and replacing it with her own while out door-knocking.
Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee says she hasn't seen Ms Rangarajan's post. (ABC News: Donal Sheil)