REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Tuesday July 6, 2004

AN emotional Opposition Leader Mark Latham held an unprecedented press conference to go on the attack over personal scrutiny, claiming it was the work of a Government smear campaign.

He demanded that the media leave his family alone as he promised he had nothing to hide about his past.

The Labor leader choked back tears during the media event which he said had been called to “clear the air”.

Mr Latham had been under intense pressure amid rumours about his personal life, his temper and his record as mayor of Liverpool in Sydney’s west.

He blamed the stories on three sources — his first wife Gabrielle Gwyther, former opponents on Liverpool Council and an alleged Government “dirt unit” charged with running a smear campaign against him.

Red-faced and emotional, Mr Latham appealed to the media to concentrate on him, not his family.

“As these rumours are circulated from my first wife, and some people in the media repeat them, would you lay off my family,’’ he asked a packed news conference.

“Things have been put to me about my sisters, my mother, and father that are not true and they don’t deserve it.

“Say whatever you like about me, but leave them out of it .’’

Mr Latham directly addressed six-year-old rumours of sexual harassment charges and suggestions of a raunchy buck’s night video.

While he had a buck’s night before his first marriage, he described it as a tame affair and said he had skipped the tradition the second time around.