With the Federal election still more than a fortnight away, nine candidates have already either been forced to quit the race, or been disendorsed by their parties, over s.44 concerns, offensive social media posts and a strip club scandal.
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While it is unsurprising minor parties and independents habitually get it wrong due to a combination of incompetence and inexperience, the major parties have no excuse.
Given the hard lessons both the LNP and Labor have been forced to digest thanks to the s.44 scandals that have dogged the current parliamentary term how is it possible for the Liberals to lose two candidates in the space of a day?
That is what happened on Wednesday when Jeremy Hearn, the candidate for Isaacs, stood down after it was revealed he had published anti-Muslim tirades online, and Peter Killin, the Liberal candidate for Wills, stood down over posting homophobic statements on the CultureWatch website in 2016.
Killin had said the "homosexual lifestyle" led to "appalling health risks" and publicly regretted not turning up to vote against gay Liberal MP, Tim Wilson's, preselection before the last election.
That said, Labor's recent record has been no better. Wayne Kurnoth, a union leader on Labor's Northern Territory Senate ticket, was forced to stand down after media reports that in 2015 he had shared a conspiracy theory claiming the world was being secretly run by a group of shape-shifting Jewish lizards.
A two-time offender, he had heavily criticised for a beheading meme featuring images of Malcolm Turnbull and Emma Alberici earlier in the campaign.
The Territorian managed to inflict even further damage on the ALP when, after Bill Shorten issued a statement saying he had never met the candidate, a photograph of the two together at the ALP's 2018 National Conference surfaced on Kurnoth's Facebook page.
While it is unsurprising minor parties habitually get it wrong due to a combination of incompetence and inexperience, the major parties have no excuse.
Luke Creasey, Labor's candidate for the seat of Melbourne, is currently under pressure to quit following revelations he had shared a bad-taste rape joke, making light of victims' allegations, on line.
One Nation's highest profile casualty to date, Steve Dickson, can only be considered lucky to have made it on to the Queensland Senate ballot paper in the first place. Apparently nobody had asked him if there might possibly be more embarrassing material in the wings following the Al Jazeera NRA dump.
These fails, which create an impression that in too many cases it appears that people are just being rubber stamped with no attempt to check their social media history, past conduct or legal eligibility, cannot be ignored.
If a major party is unable to establish whether or not a person seeking preselection on its behalf has conducted themselves improperly then it has no business putting them forward.
It does not matter whether or not the person is being considered for a winnable seat or not; they are representing the party which is making a case for its ability to run the country.
Any party which is unable to conduct sufficient due diligence to determine whether or not an individual is fit to stand is going to have a hard job persuading voters it can be trusted with the important work of parliament.
We've already paid a high price for such bungles under s.44. Let's not go through that again.
