POLL: Was Mark Latham’s Tweet Beyond the Pale?
One Nation NSW Leader Mark Latham has been condemned by the media, and politicians including his Federal Leader Pauline Hansonfor his reply to homosexual NSW Independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich calling him a disgusting human being.
Latham’s reply was made at 10.13 am yesterday in a tweet below animal rights activist Susan Metcalfe’s link to the Sydney Morning Herald article where Alex Greenwich was quoted as calling Latham disgusting. Latham’s reply was up on Twitter for 3 hours before it was deleted.
The pile-on to condemn Latham’s tweet as disgusting, vulgar and homophobic began almost immediately. At 5.18pm yesterday Pauline Hanson posted a video response on her socials stating that she, her MPs and members didn’t condone Latham’s tweet and thought it was disgusting. She said she had phoned Mark twice, texted him to let him know her position, and called on him to apologize.
Andrew Bolt on his Sky News program last night went in hard against Latham himself “It was what a scumbag would write. A drunk one… I don’t think he’ll ever live it down. He will be a pariah, and not just here at Sky. I wonder how he will be able to function as a political leader when he’s earned the contempt of so many for his abuse.”
Alex Greenwich who before he was elected the Independent Member for Sydney at a 2012 by-election was the National Convenor of Australian Marriage Equality told the media today “This has obviously been hurtful for me. I had a bit of a cry late yesterday at the end of the day … I didn’t think I’d still be subjected to homophobic abuse, but I woke up refreshed and really recommitted to dealing with LGBTI law reform in NSW to working with my colleagues.”
Greenwich is not seeking any parliamentary censure of Latham who has just been re-elected to the NSW Legislative Council for an 8-year term. He questions Latham’s state of mind “I do not expect to hear from him. I do not expect an apology from him… I hope he’s okay. The comments that he made are obviously not comments of a well person.”
Today former Federal MP for Dawson and One Nation Queensland Senate candidate at the 2022 federal election George Christensen said he was standing with Latham as the wolves of cancel culture howl for his blood.
Latham’s tweet was certainly crass and graphic in its description of homosexual anal sex but is this just the outrage mob coming for him again and going in for the political kill. Many conservatives and traditionalists have defended Latham and are disappointed in Pauline Hanson joining the social media lynch mob. Some suspect her homosexual Chief of Staff James Ashby is behind Hanson’s condemnation of Latham.
Hanson in her infamous 60 Minutes interview was asked by Tracey Curro in 1997 what she thought of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbain Mardi Gras. She said ‘I don’t like it because it’s promoting something that’s not natural’.
Was Latham’s tweet beyond the pale for an elected politician? Or was his reply simply an understandable reaction to being labelled disgusting by another MP? Vote in our poll below.
Was Mark Latham’s Tweet Beyond the Pale?