Mark Latham takes aim at party colleagues over gun lobby meeting
New MP Mark Latham blasts Pauline Hanson’s right-hand men, caught seeking $20m from the US gun lobby.
Incoming NSW One Nation MP Mark Latham has blasted Pauline Hanson’s right-hand men for claiming they were drunk when they were caught on tape seeking $20m from the US gun lobby.
One Nation chief of staff James Ashby and the party’s Queensland leader Steve Dickson said yesterday they were “on the sauce” when they were caught on tape saying they wanted to obtain up to $20 million in donations from the NRA in an Al-Jazeera sting operation.
Mr Latham, a former federal Labor leader, said the pair’s claims of drunkenness were “no excuse” but added that anyone in politics would be terrified to be “entrapped” in a similar way.
“They said they’d been on the drink but that’s no excuse. The language, the phrases, and expressions are not something I would condone in any shape or form,” he told Sydney’s 2GB radio.
“But having been entrapped, anyone in politics would say in those circumstances you’d be horrified if every private conversation was taped, every private meeting was filmed by hidden camera.”
Mr Latham, who was elected to the NSW upper house last Saturday, said he considered Al-Jazeera’s tactics “poisonous” to public trust in politics and journalism.
“Can I treat people as I find them? Or do they have to do security checks in case they too are operatives for Al-Jazeera and the ABC? Do I have to check if people have listening devices on them, or hidden cameras?” he told Sydney’s 2GB radio.
“It’s poisonous for our democracy can’t treat lobby groups and constituents at face value.
“This three year entrapment exercise is completely unprecedented in the history of Australian democracy.”
Scott Morrison accused One Nation of trying to “sell Australia’s gun laws to the highest bidders’’ yesterday and used the scandal as a platform to persuade the minor party’s voters to back the Coalition in May’s federal election.
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