Latham called ‘sad, pathetic’
FORMER federal Labor leader Mark Latham has been savaged as “sad and pathetic” after he teamed up with One Nation to smear Opposition Leader Bill Shorten as a liar.
Mr Latham’s decision to record a “robocall” for Pauline Hanson for the Longman byelection in Queensland later this month has sparked a bitter fallout with Labor.
“Mark Latham has become a pretty sad and pathetic figure,” Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers told Sky News yesterday.
“I don’t think the people of Morayfield are sitting around their lounge rooms in Origin week waiting for instructions on who to vote for from Mark Latham.”
Mr Shorten brushed off the attack, declining to respond to Mr Latham’s smears other than to label them “a sideshow”.
“Mark Latham used to be someone, he’s not anymore,” he said in Tasmania ahead of the by-election in Braddon.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was quick to point out the irony of a man Labor previously proposed as an alternative prime minister calling Mr Shorten a liar.
“So, for the first time in a long time, I agree with Mark Latham,” she said in Canberra.
Mr Latham led Labor to defeat at the 2004 federal election and has since made a career as a commentator.
On Monday night he would not rule out running for One Nation at the next federal election.
But Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm said Mr Latham was a paid-up member of his party, although he hadn’t directly communicated with him since May.
“He’s still not sure that he wants to be a politician again. So that’s the threshold test,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.
He took no issue with the robocalls.
“All he does is advocate a vote for minor parties,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.
The backlash for Mr Latham began on Monday night in a bitter spat with former ALP powerbroker Graham Richardson on Sky News. The verbal scuffle led Mr Richardson, a minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, to brand Mr Latham a “king rat”.
Senator Hanson said it would be fantastic to have Mr Latham beside her in parliament. — AAP