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The great political split: Latham and Hanson were never going to last
Firebrand Labor-turned-One Nation MP Mark Latham has been throwing bombs all his political career. Mostly, his missiles self-implode and cause Latham lasting damage.
Unsurprisingly, it has happened again. After his undignified and homophobic attack on gay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, Latham raised the ire of Pauline Hanson, the figurehead of the party that welcomed Latham back into the political fold after he had languished in the wilderness.
Mark Latham was Pauline Hanson’s star recruit. Now they face a political divorce.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen/Dominic Lorrimer
After Latham’s April rant, Hanson wasted no time in posting a scathing take-down of him on her Facebook page, adding – pointedly – that Latham had not bothered to take her calls to explain himself. His comments about Greenwich, she said, were “disgusting”.
In a small sign of commiseration, Hanson suggested that Latham’s behaviour was, perhaps, a response to One Nation’s disappointing performance in the March state election. Nonetheless, it was clear that a crack was emerging in the One Nation family.
That crack has grown into a full-scale breakdown of their relationship after Hanson unceremoniously dumped her one-time star recruit from his role as NSW leader of her party at the weekend. Fittingly, it would seem, Hanson did not bother to give Latham any warning.
Latham is a brawler and will not take the demotion without an almighty fight, which is what Hanson would have expected. He remains a member of One Nation, but that will not last.
With Latham no longer leading the party in NSW, it is likely that he and the two other One Nation MPs in Macquarie Street will band together and defect from the party.
Another Labor turncoat, Tania Mihailuk, was given a political lifeline by Latham after she fell out with the ALP late last year. She will remain loyal to Latham. Rod Roberts scored himself the plum job of deputy president of the upper house. He does not need to stay aligned to One Nation.
There is no doubt Latham overpromised and under-delivered in the NSW election. His talk of seizing lower house seats did not materialise and One Nation’s vote went backwards in the upper house. His refusal to swap preferences with the Liberals hurt the Coalition, but it also hurt Latham.
Instead of scoring an extra seat in the upper house, the Liberals’ preference deal with the Liberal Democrats ensured that minor party has a spot in the Legislative Council at the expense of One Nation. Instead of growing One Nation, Latham has stunted it.
However, despite Hanson turning on Latham, his political career will survive. Latham took the unorthodox step of resigning from the upper house, only to recontest the March election heading the One Nation ticket.
This ensures Latham, who has made a political career out of fighting, will continue to throw bombs, from the safety of the upper house, for the next eight years.
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