NSW Premier Chris Minns has labelled Mark Latham one of the state’s most “shameful bigots” after the upper house MP used parliamentary privilege to reveal details from a confidential report concerning independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich.
Earlier this week, Latham – an independent member of the NSW Legislative Council (the state’s upper house) and former One Nation NSW leader – used his position in parliament to share confidential medical information about Greenwich, who is openly gay.
That information had been presented to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal as part of a homosexual vilification and workplace sexual harassment claim brought by Greenwich against Latham.
As part of that process, the report was made confidential. But this week, Latham defied the order and repeated the contents in parliament.
Responding to the breach, Greenwich said Latham is “someone who thinks far too much about me”.
“He thinks and talks far too much about my sex life,” he said.
Greenwich also questioned why the Liberal Party was, in his view, aligning itself with Latham in opposing the state government’s workers’ compensation reforms.
“He is not someone who the Liberal Party should be taking its strategic lead from. Surely the Liberal Party has enough white dudes named Mark; it does not need to recruit Latham as its co-leader,” Greenwich said.
Minns echoed those concerns, saying Latham appeared to be “calling the shots” in the Legislative Council.
“In the upper house, the Greens, the Coalition and One Nation are merging as a coalition that is voting together day after day to platform one of the most shameful bigots in NSW,” Minns said.
He recounted to parliament Latham’s past conduct, including a homophobic tweet targeting Greenwich – which a court found defamatory – and criticism of domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty.
“I am reminded of an old adage: Never wrestle with a pig, because you both get dirty – and besides, the pig loves it,” said Minns.
It was reported this week that the Coalition had teamed up with Latham to draft amendments to the government’s workers’ compensation bill, which would axe claims for excessive work demands and vicarious trauma.
However, the Coalition denied doing any deals with Latham and said it had previously condemned his comments.
“We’ve condemned Mark Latham’s comments on many occasions. Any breach of a confidentiality order is unacceptable. They don’t reflect the kind of respectful, inclusive politics our state deserves. We haven’t done deals with him, and we won’t ignore behaviour that crosses the line,” a spokesperson for the opposition told Gay Sydney News.
“We’re not interested in shouting matches or stunts. We’re here to raise the tone, deliver results, and make government work for the people again. NSW and Sydney deserve better.”
Penny Sharpe, a Labor minister and government leader in the upper house, said she would refer Mark Latham to the privileges committee for investigation over his use of parliamentary privilege, which shields MPs from defamation claims.
In a parliamentary motion due to be voted on in August, when the Legislative Council next sits, Sharpe accused Latham of “abusing the parliamentary privilege conferred on him by disclosing privileged and protected information without authorisation”.
Latham had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Gay Sydney News reporter