The son of a couple killed in the MH17 atrocity has again called on Liberal MP Craig Kelly to retract comments suggesting Russia's involvement be overlooked, describing his "half apology" as "deficient".
Paul Guard also questioned if Malcolm Turnbull still endorsed Mr Kelly as a candidate at the next election, saying his remarks had caused an "enormous amount of pain" for victims' families.
The government backbencher on Wednesday said Russian involvement should be "slightly looked over" in order to improve world relations, and nothing could bring back the the 298 victims of the disaster.
On Thursday he "unreservedly apologised" for the remarks, but also claimed to have been taken out context, and defended his view that the world needed the US and Russia to have a good relationship.
Mr Guard, who lost lost his parents Jill and Roger when the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine by the Russian military, said the apology was "deficient in several respects".
"He made a half apology then restated the comments that were offensive in the first place. That's not an apology. He needs to do better than that," he told ABC radio on Friday.
Mr Guard also questioned why the prime minister hasn't issued a stronger rebuke of the Sydney MP, and why the party would endorse him as a candidate at the next election.
"His leadership needs to do something about this guy - I can't believe this guy would be considered for preselection," he said.
"I think Malcolm Turnbull needs to explain why he is allowing someone who's expressing these offensive views and not retracting them ... to remain in his position. Why is he still the candidate for his electorate?"
Mr Kelly is facing a tough preselection battle in his southern Sydney seat of Hughes.
The prime minister on Thursday distanced himself from the MP.
"They (the remarks) certainly warranted an apology, which I understand he has made," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
