Mark Latham makes a bad call behind the wheel

Mark Latham on the hustings in Sydney’s southwest in the week leading up to Saturday’s state election. Picture: Julian Andrews

April looks to be shaping up as a busy month for controversial NSW politician Mark Latham.

Post election, it’s now looking like the One Nation leader in NSW is poised to re-enter the NSW upper house.

That follows his cunning move to resign from his seat midterm, only to successfully run again at last weekend’s poll. The seat Latham resigned will also be filled by a One Nation candidate, so that Pauline Hanson’s party will effectively double its power in the Legislative Council by holding two seats.

But the one-time leader of the ALP, who failed in his attempt to become prime minister in the 2004 election against incumbent and Liberal leader John Howard, will have his mind on matters unfolding outside the NSW halls of power too.

Margin Call hears the outspoken politician, who has also spent time in between parliamentary stints as a political commentator and author, is set to tussle with the long arm of the law over the use of his mobile phone.

Latham is scheduled to front the Local Court in Gosford on the morning of April 19 after being detected by a camera as a driver using his mobile phone when not permitted.

The matter was first set to be heard in mid-March, but was pushed out to next month, which would have been helpful in Latham’s then unfolding campaign to represent the fine folk of NSW.

Details remain sketchy and, alas, Latham did not respond to Margin Call’s request to comment on his upcoming court matter.

Use of phones while driving usually involves a fine and loss of demerit points, but the matter can also be heard in court.

However, this is not the pollie’s first run-in with the law.

In 2018 he settled a defamation case brought against him by then ABC journalist Osman Faruqi and in 2006 Latham pleaded guilty to maliciously damaging a news photographer’s camera, but managed to escape a criminal conviction.

Latham doesn’t mind dishing out accusations either – in September last year in the parliament he accused Labor MP Anna Watsonof trying to drive home from the NSW Parliament while drunk.

Watson later admitted that on the night in question she was drunk, but that she did not drive home and rather was collected by her husband.

Team Perrottet party

Still in NSW and the sometimes grubby universe of state politics.

With Chris Minns newly sworn in as Premier, the old guard led by Dominic Perrottet and his people are still wondering how it went so wrong, and what they will do next.

No better plan in the short term than to have a party, with Perrottet and his team preparing to gather on Thursday to lament their loss and contemplate the next few years to be spent in relative political obscurity.

Perrottet, himself returned as the Member for Epping but with a significant swing against him, will host an afternoon barbecue at his and his solicitor wife Helen’s Beecroft home.

Beware small children under foot and disappearing hosts at school pick-up time.

The event is their way of saying thank you and goodbye to Team Perrottet, the former premier’s key people, including key former ministers, who supported his 18-month premiership and unsuccessful attempt to be returned to the top job.

The knees-up was originally planned to be held on Wednesday, but that had to be postponed in favour of the former premier attending the funeral of Stephen Bromhead, who died earlier this month after a long battle with mesothelioma. The memorial service was held in Tuncurry. Bromhead was the former member for Myall Lakes.

Wait on record

When a mansion sells in Melbourne after less than two weeks on the market for a price rumoured to have topped $40m, industry tongues are sure to be wagging.

The sale of Avon Court in Hawthorn’s up-market Shakespeare Grove rocked the market when reports emerged this month of an exchange that could have smashed local records. At an asking range of $38m-$41m, a sale would leave Avon Court’s vendor, Chinese businessman Chongqing Du, surprisingly well up on his 2014 purchase price of $19.8m.

The home was not occupied much in the intervening years, neighbourhood sources indicated, and the reported jump in value would put the property $15m ahead of expert expectations.

Avon Court in Hawthorn is rumoured to have sold for $40m.

A sale at the upper end of the range would also break records in the prestigious neighbourhood that are held by former Australia Post boss and exiting Latitude Financial chief Ahmed Fahour’s sale of another historic home, the renovated Invergowrie, which went for $40.5m in 2021 to Trajan Scientific and Medical co-founders Stephen and Angela Tomisich.

But will that day ever come? There is still little sign of a sale to a mooted Chinese buyer on the stately home’s title, despite claims that the property went under contract on March 21.

Real estate snouts may have to wait a little longer to determine whether the hoped-for mega-sale will ever happen.

Avon Court’s past owners include high-profile types such as former Richmond president Clinton Casey and late Autobarn co-founder Garry Dumbrell, but the mansion’s buyers may follow the vendor in maintaining a much lower profile if they were to materialise.

ALP seat battle over

A long-running legal battle over preselection in the West Australian seat of Cowan, now held by Anne Aly, has ended, sparing the Labor Party from the potential of hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs.

WA Labor has won its fight against rejected candidate and lawyer Tristan Cockman, who waged a two-year battle against the party after he failed to gain preselection in the marginal seat.

Anne Aly, who represents the WA seat of Cowan. Picture: Aaron Francis

Cockman sued over his rejection, with Perth MP Patrick Gorman included in the legal action because he was a former state secretary of the party.

Cockman had failed to be preselected in 2013. He was also unsuccessful in 2016 and then sued. In his civil case he claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses and the lost opportunity of being paid an MP’s salary.

Just a week or so ago the Supreme Court of WA Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. Gorman’s costs were covered by the party and must now be paid by Cockman.