NSW Premier Chris Minns won't rule out further censure on Mark Latham after sext revelations

News.com.au

3 days ago

NSW Premier Chris Minns has refused to rule out further action against Mark Latham in state parliament after reports the former One Nation leader sent sexually explicit texts to his then-partner from the chamber.
The one-time NSW One Nation leader has faced renewed controversy in recent days following allegations by his former partner of domestic abuse after an apprehended violence order application was filed in court.
Mr Latham has denied the allegations, which do not involve any criminal charges and have not been tested in court, but again faced claims on Wednesday he sent explicit messages to his ex-partner from inside parliament.
Asked whether he would move any additional censure motions following revelations of the messages, the Premier said he would 'reserve' his answer until more information was presented, but refused to rule it out.
'I wouldn't say categorically we wouldn't be prepared to move (a motion),' Mr Minns said.
'What I would say is that you're right, notice was given in relation to a censure of Mr Latham prior to any of these revelations.
'That goes to the point (that) people were warned about this guy for a long time, and we're going to go ahead with those motions and I am hopeful that it gets wide support to send a clear message that the kind of behaviour that he's been up to for a period of time is completely unacceptable.'
Those sentiments were mirrored by Labor upper house leader Penny Sharpe who on Tuesday said she put two motions before the house when parliament resumes in August.
One of those motions would seek to refer Mr Latham to the privileges committee over his behaviour.
The second would be a more general motion calling into question his overall behaviour.
'Mark Latham has some questions to answer on a whole range of behaviours,' she said.
Mr Minns has ramped up his attacks in recent months against Mr Latham, a former Labor leader who has become a key vote against the government in the Legislative Council.
In June, Mr Minns called Mr Latham 'Australia's biggest bigot' in a surprise spray during question time, and claimed there was an a 'coalition emerging' between the Greens in the Upper House, the Legislative Council, the Coalition, and One Nation.
He claimed they were 'voting together day after day' to 'platform one of the most shameful bigots in NSW', referring to Mr Latham.
In a series of late night tweets on Tuesday, Mr Latham said the messages purported to be between him and his former partner were 'not accurate' and claimed 'someone has made changes in very important ways'.
Mr Latham claimed the messages, as reproduced in The Daily Telegraph, omitted messages in the chain and claimed in one instance a word had been omitted from a message.
But he did not deny claims a message had been sent during question time.
'The Tele is tut-tutting one of these messages was sent during question time,' he said.
'At least I was there. There's a terrible upper house tradition of a whole bunch of MPs never attending QT, they just pop in and out for their own question.'