WA senate hopeful in hot water over posts

A West Australian Labor candidate is under attack after social media posts mocking mining magnates Gina Rinehart, former prime minister Tony Abbott and Labor's Bob Ellis were thrown into the spotlight.

Mark Reed, a union official who is fifth on Labor's senate ticket, has since removed the commentary from Twitter and Facebook.

"These are glib tweets from more than five years ago, back when MySpace, Tony Abbott and Colin Barnett were all popular within the Liberal Party," he told the West Australian on Monday.

Labor leader Bill Shorten expressed disappointment in his candidate's swearing on social media but is confident it won't be repeated.

"Labor has actually got a relatively clean slate of new candidates," Mr Shorten told reporters in Perth on Monday.

Minister for Women Michaelia Cash said Mr Shorten was "too weak" to pull the United Voice official into line for the posts, which she said were highly offensive.

Another Labor candidate to hit headlines for the wrong reasons is Tammy Solonec, who told the ABC on Sunday that member for Swan, Steve Irons, was a "rich white man".

Mr Irons was a ward of the state as a child and later became a small businessman.