Latham portrait to remain in Labor caucus room

A portrait of former Labor leader Mark Latham will remain on the wall of the party’s federal caucus room in Parliament House, but now bears a plaque noting the ALP’s rejection of his values.

Mark Latham's portrait will remain in the Labor caucus room at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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A portrait of one-time Labor leader Mark Latham will continue to hang in the party’s federal caucus room in Parliament House, but it will now be accompanied by a plaque ­acknowledging his expulsion from the party and a disavowal of his values.

The decision, reached without dissent at a meeting of the ALP caucus on Monday, follows growing controversy surrounding the one-time Labor leader, who has been accused of domestic abuse by his former partner. Mr Latham denies the allegations.

The plaque accompanying Mr Latham’s portrait will read: “In 2017, Mark Latham was expelled from the Australian Labor Party and banned for life. His actions do not accord with Labor values and fail to meet the standards we ­expect and demand.”

Former Labor leader Mark Latham ridiculed the decision. Picture: NewsWire/ Jeremy Piper.

Taking to social media platform X, Mr Latham, who led Labor from December 2003 to January 2005, mocked the decision.

“Can’t the Labor caucus go the full Stalin and white me with a trace around my head? Or replace that boring head shot with what (the media) says is my harem?” he wrote.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the choice to keep Mr Latham’s portrait – accompanied by an explanatory plaque – reflected “a recognition, on balance, that you can’t erase history”.

“He was a leader, and a leader for two years and sitting there on the wall is an indication of where we have been, and perhaps for all of us, somewhere we don’t want to return to,” she told the ABC when announcing the decision.

“Putting a factual statement on the photo, I think, sends an important message.”

Senator Gallagher said the words “also send a message about the government we are now”.

“We talked the talk about gender equality, and attitudes and behaviours matter,” she said.

Now an independent in the NSW Legislative Council, Mr Latham has faced mounting pressure in recent days after The Australian revealed that his former partner, Nathalie Matthews, had filed for a domestic violence order against him

In her application, she accused Mr Latham of a “sustained ­pattern” of abuse, also claiming he coerced her into “degrading sexual acts”.

Mr Latham has emphatically denied the allegations, labelling them “absolute rubbish” and has accused the media of taking a ­perverted interest in his sex life.

Labor MPs, however, had begun agitating for the portrait’s removal in recent days, with Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek the most high-profile critic of its continued display.

“Over the last couple of decades looking at that photo on that wall, I’ve scratched my head at times thinking this guy doesn’t represent the Labor Party, he doesn’t represent what we stand for, I don’t think he represents mainstream Australia,” Ms Plibersek told the ABC on Friday.

Despite leading Labor to a shock 2004 election defeat, Mr Latham has ultimately proven to be one of the party’s most ardent critics.

Quitting parliament in early 2005, he subsequently published The Latham Diaries, a scathing ­account that targeted many of his former Labor colleagues.

He later became a columnist for the Australian Financial Review newspaper and a commentator on Sky News, using both platforms to ­routinely criticise the party he had once led.

After years of publicly attacking Labor, Mr Latham was finally expelled from the party in 2017 when he joined the Liberal Democrats.

The NSW branch issued a lifetime ban, pointing to his defection to a rival party.

Mr Latham subsequently joined Pauline Hanson’s One ­Nation, winning a Legislative Council seat at the 2019 state election, yet his portrait remained on display in Canberra alongside all other former and current Labor leaders.