The Labor candidate for the West Australian seat of Curtin, Melissa Parke, has pulled out following reports that she told a public meeting last month that the way Israel treated Palestinians was “worse than the South African system of apartheid”.

Parke, formerly a federal member for Fremantle, said on Friday night that she did not want to be a distraction during the election campaign. The seat of Curtin was previously held by former Liberal party deputy leader Julie Bishop.

“I’ve had 20 years’ experience in international relations and law including living and working in the Middle East,” Parke said. “My views are well known.

“But I don’t want them to be a running distraction from electing a Labor government which will take urgent and strong action on climate change. That’s why I have decided to withdraw my candidacy.

“I look forward to working and supporting the party in other ways.”

Parke resigned as federal member for Fremantle in 2016, a seat she had held for nearly a decade, because she wanted to be closer to her family and spend less time on travel.

“I believe that renewal is a good tonic for our democracy,” she had said at the time.

She had been a human rights lawyer before entering parliament in 2007

The blue-ribbon seat of Curtin, which the Liberals hold by a margin of 20.7%, is one of the safest Liberal seats in the country, and had been held by Bishop since 1998. It is understood to have been one of the electorates Labor was targeting in WA and Parke’s decision to withdraw has caused a dent in the party’s hopes.

Bill Shorten told reporters on Saturday that Parke had “done the right thing” in standing down and that he did not share her views.

“I have a view that Israel has the right to security behind its borders and the Palestinian people have a legitimate issue in statehood,” the Labor leader told reporters on the New South Wales central coast.

The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, = told the ABC on Saturday that Parke’s views “did not represent the Labor party views.

He watered down talk about Labor’s high hopes for their chances in the electorate, saying Curtin wasn’t a seat they expected to win.

Labor is trying to win the Liberal seats of Hasluck, Swan, Stirling and Canning.

Labor was banking on the loss of Bishop’s personal vote and a strong candidate to reduce the Liberal hold on the seat.

Parke isn’t the only early scratching of a candidate in the election race.

On Friday, two Liberal candidates from the Victorian seats of Lalor and Wills pulled out after discovering they were probably ineligible for parliament because of dual citizenship.

This is the first election in which candidates are required by the Australian Electoral Commission to submit a qualification checklist relating to section 44 of the constitution after the 45th parliament was plagued by disqualification issues.

– with AAP