Labor voters in Griffith were shocked when they awoke two weeks ago to find the party had no candidate in Farrer, but Mr Knox still wanted to support the trainee doctor from Albury.

“I went in and gave him my first preference,” Mr Knox said.

“He’s still on the ballot paper, I don’t know what happens with him, but people can still vote for him if they wish.”

Mr Kunde made the decision to withdraw from the race on Sunday, June 19 after he found out about a story The Daily Telegraph was going to print the following day claiming he had ties to Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. While he strongly denied the links, Mr Kunde said he withdrew in the best interests of his family.

“Given the nature of what was printed I made the right call,” Mr Kunde said at the time. “We assumed the worst-case scenario and that’s exactly what it was.”

Mr Knox pointed out Mr Kunde wasn’t the first candidate to withdraw following a media expose during the election campaign. A week earlier John Min-Chiang Hsu, Liberal candidate for Calwell in the northwest of Melbourne, resigned when it was revealed he owned a brothel called Paradise Playmates in Frankston. Mr Hsu denied owning the brothel but was unable to explain why company records show it was registered to a man with the same name, address and date of birth as him.

“But Christian’s only guilty by association, he just went to uni with this guy,” Mr Knox said. “My advice on how to vote is to put the Liberal Party last.”

Mr Kunde said he was suggesting people who wanted to vote for progressive politics should get behind Amanda Cohn and the Greens.

“I feel sorry for the branch members, particularly in Griffith who had accepted I had limited time to visit and they were so supportive of me,” Mr Kunde said.

“To paraphrase Gough Whitlam, I hope they make positive use of their rage and enthusiasm and support candidates in electorates like Riverina and Eden-Monaro.”