The NSW Premier is considering launching action against an upper house MP over alleged misconduct.
Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has been accused of violence by his former partner.
Latham has also been accused of inappropriate behaviour in the parliament. For example, taking photos of female MPs without their knowledge, and filming sexual acts in his office.
Latham denies the allegations. He has not been formally charged by police.
Mark Latham
Latham, 64, has been involved in local, state, and federal politics for several decades.
In the early 90s, he was mayor of Liverpool Council in Sydney’s south-west.
He was later elected to federal Parliament in 1994 as a Labor MP, before becoming party leader in 2003.
Latham was the Opposition Leader going into the 2004 federal election, which Labor lost to Liberal Prime Minister John Howard.
Latham temporarily quit politics in 2005 and became a TV commentator and newspaper columnist.
In 2019, he was elected to the NSW upper house as a One Nation MP.
He has since left One Nation and sits as an independent.
In recent years, the federal court ruled he defamed Sydney MP Alex Greenwich in a homophobic attack on social media.
The court has ordered Latham to pay Greenwich $140,000 and legal costs, amounting to about $600,000.
Media reports
This week, The Australian reported Latham’s ex-partner Nathalie Matthews had filed a request for an Apprehended Personal Violence Order (AVO) against him.
Under the AVO, Latham would be required, by law, to stay at least 100 metres away from Mathews at all times.
Matthews ran as a NSW Liberal candidate in 2021 and manages a global logistics firm, according to her LinkedIn.
The case is listed for a hearing in a NSW court later this month. Latham hasn’t been charged.
Latham called the allegations of partner violence “comically false”.
In a post to social media, he wrote: “As the old saying goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
The Daily Telegraph then published WhatsApp sexts between Latham and Matthews, which appeared to be sent while Latham was sitting in the upper house chamber.
It has since been alleged that Latham and Matthews had sex in his parliamentary office and filmed it.
Female MPs
The Daily Telegraph also published images of female MPs, allegedly taken and sent by Latham without the women’s knowledge.
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In addition to the WhatsApp photos, Latham is accused of writing graphic descriptions about Greens MP Abigail Boyd, and Liberal MPs Eleni Petinos and Susan Carter.
In one of his message, he also claimed to have “pinched” Petinos on the bottom. Petinos has since told the newspaper it is “impossible” that it could have happened.
Latham's response
During a radio interview with 2SM, Latham did not expressly deny taking the photos.
Instead, he compared taking personal photos of women in Parliament to the press gallery photographers and media, who he said “do [it] all the time”.
Latham has since apologised to Carter, one of the MPs he’s accused of photographing.
When asked about allegedly having sex in his office, he told 2SM presenter Chris Smith that there’s “no suggestion of any law or rule broken”.
Latham claims the media reports against him are almost entirely false and that his interaction with Matthews was “consensual”.
On his social media feed, Latham has published screenshots of comment requests sent by journalists, referring to some as “clowns”.
Response
NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson, also an upper house MP, called Latham a “pig”.
Responding to the reports of behaviour in Parliament, Jackson said: “In any other workplace, you’d be shown the door”.
She didn’t make any comments specifically about the allegations of the AVO, noting it needed to go through a legal process.
Premier Chris Minns said the “troubling” conduct in Parliament could be referred to the privileges committee.
This committee can investigate complaints made about workplace harassment and misconduct in Parliament.
On Thursday, the Premier repeated his criticism of Latham, calling him a “disgrace”.
It comes weeks after Minns told the lower house Latham was “one of Australia’s biggest bigots.”
Acting NSW Opposition Leader Damien Tudehope called Latham’s behaviour “unacceptable”.
However, he noted Latham would have to clear “a pretty high bar” to lose his seat in Parliament, as only one member has been expelled in 130 years.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s editorial board has published an opinion piece describing Latham as a “cockroach” and calling for him to be sacked from Parliament before his term ends in 2031.
