Former candidate for Wannon Tess Corbett withdrew her nomination after saying paedophiles could be “next in line” if gays and lesbians were given equal rights, and Bernard Gaynor was suspended for the party for saying he wouldn’t allow gay people to teach his children. 

The Bendigo branch met at the United Kingdom Hotel on Saturday and local spokesman Ken Pattison said things were slowly progressing. 

“Nominations are going to Queensland and we’re not exactly made aware of them because of privacy,” he said. 

“We’re a little bit in the dark as to who has nominated and filled in the forms.

“We’ll be developing specific policies for Bendigo, I can’t tell you those because they’ve got to be ratified by state. 

“We can’t have candidates standing up in the street and giving their own version of the world because you’re already aware of what’s happened when candidates have done that already.”

Bendigo branch president John Carty said the local candidates were all “good-looking people” from a wide range of backgrounds. 

“Due process has to take place for them to be endorsed,” he said.

“They’ll go to the state body for preselection.”

Mr Carty said candidates would be nominated for both houses of the federal parliament. 

Mr Pattison said he hoped to have the preselection process completed in about a month. 

“We think we’ve got a really good story to tell when we’ve got everything together,” he said. 

“It’s growing that fast, the growing pains are causing strain everywhere. 

“And we’ve just got to steady down and get it right and get it done professionally, and th