LATHAM’S LONG MARCH FROM THE LEFT HITS PEAK PAULINE
Former Labor prime ministerial candidate Mark Latham is expected to announce tomorrow he has joined forces with Pauline Hanson.
Former Labor prime ministerial candidate Mark Latham is expected to tomorrow announce he has joined forces with Pauline Hanson.
Sharri Markson and Jack Houghton report:
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.
The Daily Telegraph understands Latham will take on a leadership role as the head of One Nation in NSW — he will not be on the Senate ticket.
Latham, now a political commentator, will announce his return to politics on Alan Jones’ 2GB program tomorrow morning at 6.40.
Just a guess, but I don’t think anyone saw this coming in 2004.
UPDATE. Wednesday morning’s Daily Telegraph editorial:
Mark Latham’s political trajectory is the most complicated of any parliamentary figure since former prime minister Billy Hughes.
Just 14 years ago, Latham was Labor’s great hope in the 2004 election battle against John Howard. Many on the left hailed Latham as a potential national leader of equal qualities to Bob Hawke.
It helped Latham’s Labor credentials, too, that he was the member for Gough Whitlam’s old seat of Werriwa.
But that election proved catastrophic for Labor, with Howard easily winning and gaining Senate control into the bargain.
Latham has shifted significantly to the right of politics during the years since while maintaining his always-acerbic views on various political and social issues. His shift has now reached the point where today he will announce his membership of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.
It is fair to say that nobody could have possibly predicted this back in 2004. And unpredictability remains a key Latham trait.
A direct and forceful individual by nature, Latham is not given to enduring circumstances that displease him. His One Nation experience might not be the longest spell in Australian political history.