Latham accuses Labor MP of attempting to drive home drunk from parliament

One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham has used parliamentary privilege to accuse Labor MP and whip Anna Watson of attempting to drive after being “paralytically drunk” in Macquarie Street.

At a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday, Latham asked parliamentary officials if there was a security report relating to an incident involving Watson, who he alleged was drunk in the NSW parliament bar and later had to be stopped from leaving in her car.

Mark Latham has used parliamentary privilege to accuse Anna Watson of attempting to drive after being “paralytically drunk” in Macquarie Street.

The alleged incident, which dates back to August 2020, came after a meeting of the parliament’s cross-party advisory group on bullying, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, of which Watson is a member.

Latham told budget estimates that he saw Watson in the parliament’s bar “paralytically drunk, as drunk as anyone I’ve ever seen in my long time working in a parliament house”.

Latham said Watson was “screaming into her phone: ‘You’re too effing good for him, you’re too effing good for him.’ ” Watson later confirmed she had been drinking with Latham.

In a statement, Watson, the member for Shellharbour, acknowledged she had too much to drink on the night Latham had referred to but denied attempting to drive.

“During a particularly difficult period of my life where a close family member was experiencing a personal crisis, and out of respect for this family member I will not disclose the details of this matter, but I did turn to alcohol to deal with the stress,” Watson said.

“The day Mr Latham referred to the Legislative Assembly was not sitting and outside of business hours. 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.”

Watson said she had too much alcohol “during that extremely stressful and traumatic period” and stressed she did not try to drive her car.

“I recognise this. I knew that I had had too much to drink that evening and so I took the step most people would and called my husband. He picked me up from the back of the parliament,” she said.

“I want to be clear – I did not attempt to drive or drive the car.”

NSW Department of Parliamentary Services chief executive Mark Webb told budget estimates that he was “not aware of any security report along those lines” that Latham outlined.

The parliament’s advisory group played a key role in the Broderick investigation into workplace culture in NSW parliament, which found unacceptable levels of sexism and sexual harassment, as well as the existence of “hot spots” of bad behaviour within parliament.

The report identified alcohol as a key factor.

Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick led the review, which warned that “key drivers of harmful behaviour” include the unequal distribution of power between parliamentarians and staff, the under-representation of women and the “highly pressured and political nature of the working environment”.

“Other factors – such as long working hours, staffing conditions of engagement that render staff on tenuous contractual arrangements, and access to and consumption of alcohol in NSW Parliamentary workplaces – compound these drivers,” Broderick’s report found.

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