MP Anna Watson shares on ‘drink with a mate’ which turned sour

It went from ‘a drink with a mate’ to a heated, public argument two years later— now NSW MP Anna Watson has shared her side of the story after fellow One Nation MP Mark Latham used parliamentary privilege to allege she had a drinking problem.

With a few days to go before the state election, Labor’s Member for Shellharbour Anna Watson is on a war footing.

At the 2019 poll, Ms Watson captured 57.5 per cent of votes, but she’s not taking the 63,000 strong electorate she’s represented for 12 years for granted.

“I just love election time – it’s democracy in action,” the former union organiser said. “But I take absolutely no notice of margins or the polls, I’ll be fighting for every single vote I can get.”

Asked about her Independent opponent, Shellharbour Mayor Chris Homer, Ms Watson takes the gloves off.

“He’s not an Independent – how can he be an independent when he’s giving his preferences to the Liberals? He’s tied in with (former Liberal now Independent) Gareth Ward.”

Labor Member for Shellharbour Anna Watson.

She makes it clear her mission is to unseat the government.

“The damage they have done, the pork-barrelling in Liberal seats – it has to stop.” she said. “The Minns Labor government will direct money to where it’s needed - health care, dental.”

The popular local member seems to have the numbers and if re-elected with a Labor government promises to invest in capital works programs including a Shellharbour Hospital upgrade, a new high school and an Illawarra TAFE facility.

Yet last September Ms Watson became the centre of a bizarre, heated argument during a Budget Estimates hearing when former federal Labor Leader and now NSW One Nation MP Mark Latham used parliamentary privilege to describe how two years earlier he’d seen her ‘as drunk as anyone I’ve ever seen in my long time working in a Parliament House’.

Ms Watson had been a member of the Broderick Review into a ‘toxic culture’ in Macquarie Street, prompting Mr Latham to claim she had then threatened to drive home, telling the committee ‘Do you really think she should have been on an advisory group judging the rest of us for serious misconduct?’

Ms Watson was accused of having a drinking problem

by fellow MP Mark Latham using parliamentary privilege.

“That day had been the worst day in my life” Ms Watson said. “I had just learned a very close relative had been diagnosed with a grave illness.

“It was a non-sitting parliamentary day and Mark and I were having a drink – I thought I was having a drink with a mate – and here he was, very understanding – I just needed a shoulder to cry on ... and he told me about a member of his family and I thought ‘you know, this is a person who really understands’, but what he did later to me was just disgraceful.”

In a statement at the time, she said: ‘I did drink too much alcohol during that extremely stressful and traumatic period, I recognise this … I want to be clear ... I did not drive the car … I have been abstaining from alcohol.’

But she says her abstinence is not binding.

“You know, there comes a time when you stop drinking ... maybe I’ll have one if I’m at a wedding or a function.”