He’s used to dealing with drama and tension during suspenseful rose ceremonies as host of The Bachelor Australia franchise.
But during an interview with Mark Latham, 56, on Thursday, it was almost all-out war for Osher Gunsberg, 43.
In the emotive chat on Hit105’s Stav, Abby and Matt with Osher, the reality TV show host was audibly irritated by the former politician, with the exchange culminating in Mark declaring he was ‘not going to take lectures from a guy from The Bachelor mansion’.
Going head to head! During an emotive interview on Hit105’s Stav, Abby and Matt with Osher, Mark Latham (left) and Osher Gunsberg battled it out over the former politician’s views on language censorship
Things got off to a rocky start when the Outsiders author complained about the ‘language police’ at the ABC allegedly banning words like ‘Aborigine’.
Osher took issue with the claims and questioned whether allowing people to have free reign when it came to language guidelines was a good thing.
‘A lot of this stuff is just not being an a**ehole… it’s just being nice to people,’ Osher said.
‘Do you really believe people would be nice to people or do you believe people would just be off-tap like a firehouse of abuse?’
‘A lot of this stuff is just not being an a**ehole’: Osher (pictured with The Bachelorette Sophie Monk) attempted to question Mark about whether letting people have free reign over the language they use was a good thing for society
Mark responded by seemingly veering off-topic to explain why ‘Aborigine’ was not an offensive word and kept interrupting and talking over Osher to get his point across.
‘That’s not what I asked Mark. Mark that’s not what I asked,’ Osher hit back.
When Mark continued explaining his thoughts about the word, an exasperated Osher said: ‘Are you going to just keep talking and not listen? Ok…’
Meanwhile, radio co-host Matty Acton interjected with ‘You’ve upset Osher!’
‘I’m just trying to have a conversation but you won’t stop talking Mark,’ an annoyed Osher added before asking his question again.
‘I’m just trying to have a conversation but you won’t stop talking Mark’ Osher became audibly irritated when Mark continued to speak over him and avoided directly answering the question
He continued: ‘If I as a person say you’re a… I’m just going to make some stuff up here Mark… “You’re a white, middle-aged straight, privileged man who has no idea what it’s like to live with brown skin”, you’re like “no, it’s fine you can say that to me”?’.
Mark replied by saying it was fine as taking offence was a decision made by the person on the receiving end of the comments.
‘Yeah you go for it, if that’s your opinion Osher. You say that 100 times,’ he said.
‘It’s not the person saying it, it’s the choice by the person at the other end to take offence and be weak and not be resilient… if you want to say that, that’s fine.’
Tensions reached a climax when Mark slung insults at Osher and his line of questioning.
‘I’ve worked for an indigenous organisation for a good part of my public life trying to help indigenous Australians so I’m not going to take lectures from a guy from The Bachelor mansion,’ he declared before the pair seemed to agree to disagree.
‘I’m not going to take lectures from a guy from The Bachelor mansion’: Mark hit back at the loaded question with a remark that referenced Osher’s TV hosting gig