War Of Words After Pauline Hanson Dumps Mark Latham

A war of words has erupted after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson dumped MLC Mark Latham as the leader of the party in NSW. A miffed Latham had a message for Hanson: ‘Buy a mirror!’

Latham, who is currently facing a defamation case filed by Independent gay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich over his homophobic statements, said in a post on Facebook that Hanson had ousted him and taken over the NSW branch of the party. 

“Without consultation or due process, Senator Pauline Hanson used the National Executive powers of One Nation to take over our NSW branch,” said Latham. 

‘Buy A Mirror’

Hanson had justified her decision by pointing to the party’s poor showing at the state elections in March and the 14 per cent vote drop. 

Latham, however, pointed the fingers at Hanson. “She has installed her own new State Executive with people from Queensland and Tasmania who did not lift a finger to help us during the March election campaign. Good party members who worked exceptionally hard for One Nation have been kicked off the Executive.”

He questioned Hanson’s reasoning for taking over the state executive. “Hanson’s sole justification for this takeover is our upper house vote, which fell by 1% in March. Yet our 6% result was still 2% ahead of the NSW Senate result last year in a campaign Hanson herself headed.”

He then called out Hanson for her own disastrous showing at the Federal elections last year. 

“In Queensland, Hanson’s Senate vote fell by 3% and she only just scraped in for re-election. If she is worried about under-performance, her best solution is to buy a mirror,” Latham hit out. 

‘It’s About Money’

Terming it the “Queensland control of NSW One Nation”, Latham alleged that the real reason behind the takeover was to do with the party’s funds.

“The Queensland takeover is not about performance. It is about money. As NSW One Nation Leader I have stood in the way of attempts to misuse our funds, especially the administration money contributed by NSW taxpayers through the Electoral Commission,” Latham claimed. 

Latham insisted that he remains the leader of the party’s Parliamentary team in NSW. “I’ll have more to say on this money matter when the NSW Parliament sits next week,” Latham said in his parting shot. 

Earlier this year in March, Hanson had asked Latham to apologise for his homophobic tweets directed at Greenwich. Hanson said she had tried to call Latham on his phone, but “to no avail”.

Latham responded claiming Hanson never called him. “Pauline hasn’t rung me at any stage during this. I’ve had no contact from her whatsoever…. I’m assuming that as a woman she doesn’t understand how straight men feel about this and… gay men obviously wouldn’t understand how straight men feel about it but it’s true,” Latham claimed.