Labor MP Anna Watson ‘drunk’ at parliament’s bar, Mark Latham claims

A Labor MP has conceded she drank “too much” after it was alleged she was seen ‘paralytically drunk’ at parliament’s bar - but says she trusted Mark Latham with her personal crisis.

A NSW Labor politician who Mark Latham revealed was “paralytically drunk” at parliament’s bar says she thought she had the One Nation MP’s “ear and a shoulder to cry on” during a family crisis.

Labor MP Anna Watson admitted she “did drink too much alcohol” on August 27, 2020 after Mr Latham exposed the incident using parliamentary privilege.

Mr Latham used a budget estimates hearing to ask officials whether the members of an “advisory group” overseeing the Broderick report into bad behaviour on Macquarie Street were subject to a “vetting process”.

Ms Watson is on that committee.

Mr Latham alleged that he saw Ms Watson “as drunk as anyone I’ve ever seen in my long time working in Parliament House” and that she was “screaming into her phone: ‘you’re too effing good for him, you’re too effing good for him’.”

Labor MP Anna Watson was allegedly ‘drunk’ inside parliament’s bar, Mark Latham has claimed.

Labor’s Anthony D’Adam objected to Mr Latham’s questions, saying they were “filled with assumptions”.

“You’re making assertions about a member, the member is not in a position to defend themselves, you should desist from this line of questioning, it’s out of order,” Mr D’Adam said.

Mark Latham is seen during Budget Estimates inside NSW Parliament. Picture: Gaye Gerard

In a statement, Ms Watson said she “did turn to alcohol to deal with the stress … during a particularly difficult period of my life where a close family member was experiencing a personal crisis”.

“I was having a drink with Mr Latham in the Parliament House bar. I thought I had his ear and a shoulder to cry on that evening,” she said.

Ms Watson said she “knew that I had had too much to drink that evening and so I took the step most people would and called my husband”.

“I want to be clear – I did not attempt to drive,” Ms Watson said in her statement, after Mr Latham questioned whether parliament staff had to stop her driving her car. She also revealed she is now a teetotaller.

Mr Latham also called the Broderick report a “shit sheet” smearing MPs without evidence.

Ms Watson was contacted for additional comment.