‘Shameful bigot’: Premier’s spray after Mark Latham stunt

Premier Chris Minns has called Mark Latham one of the state’s most “shameful bigots” after the former One Nation MP used his position to reveal details of a confidential psychologist’s report of his political nemesis Alex Greenwich.

Senior Labor minister Penny Sharpe told the Legislative Council she would refer Latham to the powerful privileges committee to be investigated for his use of parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from defamation proceedings.

This week Latham used that protection to share the confidential medical information of independent MP Alex Greenwich, which was presented to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal during a homosexual vilification and workplace sexual harassment claim brought by Greenwich against Latham.

The Federal Court found Latham defamed Greenwich in an offensive tweet.

As part of the tribunal process, the psychologist’s report was made confidential. On Tuesday, Latham blatantly defied the confidentiality order and repeated the evidence, which the Herald cannot repeat due to the order.

In a blistering response on Wednesday, Greenwich told the lower house Latham “is someone who thinks far too much about me”.

“He thinks and talks far too much about my sex life,” he said.

NSW MP Mark Latham revealed the confidential information in parliament. Credit: Sam Mooy

Greenwich said the Liberal Party, which has teamed up with Latham and the Greens to block the government’s workers’ compensation reforms, should be careful of working with Latham given his comments.

“Surely the Liberal Party has enough white dudes named Mark; it does not need to recruit Latham as its co-leader,” Greenwich said.

On Thursday night, Latham said Sharpe “doesn’t know what she’s talking about” and that the Minns government “hates upper house scrutiny”.

It emerged earlier on Thursday that the Liberals and Latham have teamed up to draft amendments to the government’s workers’ compensation bill, which would axe claims being made for excessive work demands and vicarious trauma.

In May, Latham also broke confidentiality when he revealed secret details in a Law Enforcement Conduct Commission inquiry into NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb.

The LECC was investigating the failure of Webb to declare her personal association with the supplier of “Commissioner’s Gin”, which she purchased as gifts in her professional capacity.

In his speech to parliament, Latham acknowledged the contents of the report were subject to a non-publication order, and regardless of this went on to reveal the details anyway.

In Sharpe’s motion, which will be voted on by the upper house when it next sits in August, she said Latham was “abusing the parliamentary privilege conferred on him by disclosing privileged and protected information without authorisation”.

Minns didn’t hold back either – calling Latham a “shameful bigot” in question time on Thursday.

“I’m reminded of that old adage, Mr Speaker, never wrestle with a pig because you both get dirty and besides, the pig loves it.”

Latham and Greenwich have been locked in a bitter feud since 2023 when Latham made homophobic, sexualised slurs against the member for Sydney in a tweet.

The tweet was in response to comments made in this masthead by Greenwich, in which he called the former Labor leader “a disgusting human being” after a clash between protesters outside a Latham event. 

Meanwhile, the government has seized on the joint amendments from Liberal treasury spokesman Damien Tudehope and Latham to its workers’ compensation bill.

Under Tudehope and Latham’s proposed changes, they would seek to redefine bullying as a “deliberate intent of harming or intimidating a worker or a group of workers of which the worker is a member”.

It would also change the meaning of sexual harassment to be an unwelcome sexual advance, an unwelcome request for the worker to engage in sexual activity, or any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the worker.

The amendments would also “remove all provisions raising” the whole person injury threshold for work injury damages and non-economic loss to 25 per cent and then 31 per cent. This threshold was one of the most controversial aspects of the Labor bill.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the Tudehope/Latham amendments would “all but stop anybody who was racially or sexually harassed, bullied or exposed to vicarious trauma from claiming any workers’ compensation.”

“Worse, the burden of proof would shift to a victim of racial or sexual harassment who would have to prove their perpetrator knew their behaviour was reprehensible,” Mookhey said.

NSW Liberal Leader Mark Speakman on Thursday dismissed claims that Latham was the de facto opposition leader, and defended his party’s involvement in amending the workers’ compensation bill.

“We want to put downward pressure on premiums, but we think there’s an alternative and fairer way of doing it, which is to focus on people entering the workers’ comp scheme in the first place rather than penalising those who have no work capacity some years after the event,” Speakman told Clinton Maynard on 2GB.″

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