Ms Whelan was preselected as the Liberal candidate for Lyons but was disendorsed on May 3 after offensive Islamophobic posts she appeared to have made on Facebook came to light.

She strongly refutes having made one of these posts in particular, in which it seems as though she advocated for some feminists who supported Sharia law to have their genitalia mutilated. Ms Whelan has referred the posts to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.

She is now running as an independent in the electorate.

Far-right Queensland Senator Fraser Anning has recently started his own political party called Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party and is running candidates in the federal election, including in Tasmania. He has attracted widespread condemnation from the community and politicians alike for his public statements on Islamic culture and Muslim immigration.

Chelle Boekel, whose recent activity on Facebook has largely related to her support for Senator Anning's re-election, posted a picture on Friday which showed a man holding an Australian flag and standing next to a banner which read 'VOTE 1 FRASER ANNING. GREENS + LABOR LAST'.

Ms Whelan is currently one of 36 people to have liked the post.

On Saturday night, Ms Whelan appeared to confirm that she had liked the post in question but said that didn't mean she supported the views espoused by Senator Anning.

"There is no endorsement from me to any political party," she said.

"If [people] look a little closer they will see that I like posts from most of the political parties.

"I'm an independent and will remain an independent and my views remain my own, not that of any other party."

Ms Whelan has said the views she expressed via social media in the past are no longer her views now.

Senator Anning was elected to the Federal Parliament as a One Nation senator but later defected to become an independent.

His first speech in the Federal Parliament last year called for a "final solution" to "the immigration problem", invoking Nazi Germany. Recently, he blamed Muslim immigration for the Christchurch mosque shootings, which saw 51 people killed.