Mark Latham denies abuse claims, says he is ‘guilty of being human’ in relation to sexting in parliament

Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has defended his actions of sexting in parliament, but has doubled down on his denial of accusations from his former partner that he was abusive.

Nathalie May Matthews and Mark Latham pictured when they were a couple.

Embattled MP Mark Latham has hit back at revelations he sent explicit text messages to his then-partner Nathalie Matthews while sitting on the floor of parliament, saying he was guilty “of being human”.

This comes after revelations Ms Matthews accused Mr Latham of shocking physical and sexual abuse, including forcing her into “degrading sexual acts” in submissions filed to the NSW Local Court. Mr Latham has denied the allegations, labelling the claims “comically false and ridiculous” on Monday night.

It was revealed on Tuesday Mr Latham and Ms Matthews had exchanged graphic and sexually explicit WhatsApp messages while sitting on the floor of the parliamentary chamber, according to a log of messages obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

In his first public interview since the allegations were made, Mr Latham acknowledged he had participated in the workplace sexts and doubled down on denials of Ms Matthew’s accusations.

He said his work “output” matched up against any other upper house MP, saying he rather pay attention to his then-partner than leader of the government in the Upper House Penny Sharpe.

“If you’re sitting there listening to Penny Sharpe droning on, then a woman that looks like

Nathalie Matthews sends you a message, which one would you pay attention to,” he said on 2SM speaking with Chris Smith.

“I’m guilty of being a human in that regard and male.

“The big news is I have a private life, I had a sex life that I’ve got to say was fantastic.”

Mr Latham hit out at the reporting of sexually explicit messages from this masthead, saying they lacked context.

Screen grab of a video feed from Question Time in the NSW parliament of Mark Latham texting or holding his phone at 4:19pm on the 20th of February, 2025. Picture: Supplied,

“There are inaccuracies, a lack of context – the reference to an f*k parlour was an in-joke that I don’t think you’d understand unless you’d seen or participated in the full context of the messages,” he said.

In messages sent by Mr Latham to Ms Matthews in November last year, he asks her to share her location.

“Send tracker so I can find this F*k parlour,” the message read.

Mr Latham denied there was any truth in the claims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse made in Ms Matthews’ AVO application, calling the allegations of abuse “ridiculous” and “preposterous”.

“Just about all the things she’s complaining about she initiated in consensual arrangements,” he said.

Nathalie May Matthews the ex-partner of Mark Latham

Mark Latham, when he was leader of One Nation in the NSW parliament. Picture: AAP

He said he had very little contact with Ms Matthews after the break-up on May 27, besides returning her belongings to her apartment and making decisions around a racehorse they co-owned.

Mr Latham also responded to reports he had asked Ms Matthews to marry him in May last year, saying she was already married.

“You can’t marry someone who is already married,” he said.

Ms Matthews made the allegations to the court as part of an attempt to seek an apprehended violence order against Mr Latham.

It is understood NSW Police investigated the allegations provided to them by Ms Matthews, including evidence from her phone, and also sought the opinion of prosecutors, before all agreeing there was not enough evidence to take out an AVO against Mr Latham.

Commenting for the first time since allegations of domestic abuse broke about his parliamentary colleague Mark Latham, NSW Premier Chris Minns said voters would not accept MPs sexting during parliament.

NSW Premier Chris Minns during a press conference on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

Mr Minns also vowed to proceed with censure motions previously made against Mr Latham, but said he would not launch new censure bids based on the allegations until “more information” comes to light.

“I think your average voter would expect people to be focusing on whatever’s being debated or voted on at that time, and that’s a pretty basic expectation of your average person,” Mr Minns said.

“Notice was given in relation to a censure of Mr Latham prior to any of these revelations and I think that goes (to show) people were wrong about this guy for a long time.

“We’re going to go ahead with those motions and I’m hopeful that it gets wide cross-party support to send a clear message that the kind of behaviour that he’s been up to for a long period of time is completely unacceptable.

“(But) I think it’s important that the public know I’m focused on them and I hope that this is investigated and the truth comes out.”

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Originally published as Mark Latham denies abuse claims, says he is ‘guilty of being human’ in relation to sexting in parliament