Never one to shy away from inserting himself into a situation that has nothing to do with him, Mark Latham dished up some choice words about Labor Senator Penny Wong yesterday, in reference to allegations of a toxic culture of bullying inside Labor ranks.
Speaking on 2GB, Latham told Ben Fordham “Penny Wong is not a very nice person”.
“I know that from my own experience.
“This whole facade they’ve put up of Labor being pro-women has really just fallen apart now,” the former Labor leader suggested.
It’s lucky really, that we have blokes like Latham willing to show us the light on good behaviour and morality. So with this in mind, I’ve taken the opportunity to look back on five times Mark Latham proved himself as the pinnacle of goodness:
Persistent attacks on domestic and family violence victim-survivor & advocate, Rosie Batty
Before suggesting that domestic violence was a “coping mechanism for men”, Latham accused former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty — a victim-survivor of family violence, whose son Luke was tragically murdered by his own father — of being part of a feminist group using domestic violence for political gain and a campaign “against all Australian men”.
He went further, to claim that domestic violence was a tool of the feminist left and part of “the curse of political correctness in Australia”.
He then gaslit women nationally, suggesting that “surveys show women are safer than ever before, that, sure, there are some unacceptable incidents of domestic assault in the community, but they’re no worse than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Why this big national push?”
“Negro” is an inoffensive term
Defending Liberal Senator Eric Abetz’s widely condemned use of the slur, Mark Latham said he hadn’t received “the memo” suggesting the term was offensive.
“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, ‘Negro’ was actually a respected, dignified alternative to really racist terms like ‘nigger’ and ‘darky’,” Latham told The Verdict’s host, Karl Stefanovic. “So I must have missed the memo somewhere in the ’90s or more recently as to when ‘Negro’ became unacceptable.
“I’m happy to make my weekly donation to Australia’s outrage industry by saying ‘Negro, Negro, Negro’.”
Deriding former Liberal Minister Andrew Robb’s admission of mental illness
In a segment on Sky News, Latham started reading from Andrew Robb’s memoir, ‘Black Dog Haze’ in which he chronicled his battle with mental illness. According to Latham, Robb’s brave admissions were evidence of his incompetence as a Minister. He later refused to apologise after he was called upon to do so.
“Does he need to apologise to himself ? He wrote a book. He wrote a book outing himself as having a lifetime of trouble with mental illness,” Latham said.
Robb responded, calling Latham’s public ignorance, “very dangerous”.
“He’s used my mental health history as a way of dismissing anything I am doing,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun. “It just perpetuates the stigma. Big time.”
His latest “Parental Rights” bill
One of Latham’s most recent acts of kindness, comes in the form of proposed legislation that he’s sought support on through the NSW Parliament as a member of One Nation. The bill attempted to prohibit teachers from discussing “the ideology of gender fluidity to children in schools” and prevent schools from supporting transgender students without parental consent.
Advocates slammed the recommendations as a “direct attack on the safety of trans and gender diverse young people in schools” as well as potentially “unlawful”.
(Thankfully it was rejected last week).
His comments about women more broadly
Latham has repeatedly come under fire for his misogynistic comments.
He sensationally claimed that former Prime Minister Julia Gillard lacked empathy and was “wooden” because she had chosen not to have children
He described US-born Kristina Keneally, as – among other things – a “Yankee sheila”.
He labelled ABC presenter Wendy Harmer as a “female with a disability” and a “proven commercial failure”.
He scorned the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policies to promote women as appointing people solely on the basis of the “shape of their genitalia”.
At every opportunity, Latham attempts to have his belligerent, bullying (and increasingly irrelevant) voice heard above those with anything rational to say.
But yeah, nah. Let’s listen to this bloke’s advice on how to be a decent human.