Mark Latham calmer, wiser, righter

For months minor party state directors and prospective candidates have been making their way to Mark Latham’s home.

Mark Latham with Pauline Hanson in Sydney yesterday: ‘I’ve got a calm resolve.’ Picture: John Grainger

For months minor-party state ­directors and prospective candidates have been making their way to Mark Latham’s home at Camden in Sydney’s southwest.

He said yesterday he felt like a “father confessor” as they asked him about a career in politics — and tried to woo him to run for their parties in the Senate.

It was a couple of months ago that the former federal Labor ­leader met young prospective One Nation candidates who really impressed him and he decided he wanted a career with Pauline Hanson’s party in the NSW parliament.

Standing alongside Senator Hanson yesterday, Mr Latham said he would be the NSW leader of One Nation and No 1 on the Legislative Council ticket. He added that he had a “calm resolve”, being older now.

He claimed he could hold it together without more incidents like when he broke a taxi driver’s arm or when he was sacked from media organisations for making offensive comments.

With his federal experience ­behind him, Mr Latham seemed more articulate yesterday than Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Opposition Leader Luke Foley as he effectively threw a hand grenade into the campaign for the election next March.

There is every chance Mr Latham could hold the balance of power after the state election, with the upper house likely to feature a range of minor-party members.

State politics meant he could be closer to family, but when asked by The Australian what his wife thought of him returning to politics, Mr Latham said he made the mistake of talking about his family too much last time round and he was not going to do that again. “The more you talk about personal matters, the more some in the media get interested in them, so best not to talk about it,” he said.

“I’ve got a calm resolve to do the best I can with Pauline’s support to give people a choice in NSW. I’m not saying I’m perfect but I would say that over time one learns how to do things better.”

Mr Latham said he planned to campaign on hot-button issues such as power prices, immigration and congestion.

He planned to campaign against the political correctness that he thought had pervaded the public education system and what he saw as the declining standards in the same system.

He also talked of a “Sydney is full” attitude that he and former Labor premier Bob Carr shared, citing “the congestion in Sydney, the over-development, the over-population, the way in which the city’s becoming ­dysfunctional”.

Senior Labor MPs ridiculed Mr Latham’s decision to join One ­Nation, predicting his “marriage” with Senator Hanson would not last long and “end in tears”.

“Mark Latham and Pauline Hanson deserve each other. They’ve both fallen out with everybody they’ve ever worked with,” Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said.

Under Mr Latham’s leadership the ALP suffered a heavy defeat against John Howard at the 2004 election.