Mark Latham has labelled Chris Minns ‘a fool’ after the NSW premier warned he would not work with the One Nation leader following his homophobic tweet.
Mr Minns called the tweet ‘vile’ and said on Sunday he would try to block Mr Latham from chairing any committees in the NSW Parliament’s Upper House.
He is the latest person to condemn Mr Latham after the One Nation NSW leader fired off an offensive tweet about Sydney MP Alex Greenwich on Thursday.
Mr Latham was called a ‘disgusting human being’ by Mr Greenwich for attending a rally where Christians clashed with LGBTQI activists on March 21, prompting him to respond on Twitter.
‘Disgusting? How does that compare with sticking your d*** up a bloke’s a*** and covering it with s***?’ he wrote.
The One Nation NSW leader hit back at Mr Minns and told Daily Mail Australia he was ‘not running for any’ committee chair positions and that Mr Minns is ‘a fool’.
One Nation’s NSW leader Mark Latham (pictured) has called the state’s newly elected Labor Premier Chris Minns ‘a fool’ amid a war of words over a homophobic tweet about a gay MP
‘But if that’s what a new premier thinks about, he’s just showing people how vacuous he is,’ he said.
The former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet resigned as Liberal party leader after losing last weekend’s state election, but Mr Minns said he would seek an agreement with the party’s next leader about trying to sideline Mr Latham.
‘I’m not sure who’s going to lead the Liberal Party in the next few months, but I’d call on their organisation to make a similar commitment,’ he said.
‘The commentary that he made in relation to the independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, were vile and obviously hugely disrespectful.’
Mr Minns said Mr Latham was ‘trying … to import a US-style, (Donald) Trump-style approach to politics in NSW, but without anywhere near the political success.’
‘We’re not going to work with One Nation,’ he said.
‘(Mr Latham’s) commentary, his approach to politics in NSW (are) clearly somebody that’s approaching politics in a spiteful way.
‘I don’t think that it’s conducive to … good politics in this state, to have him elevated in his status as a member of the NSW upper house,’ Mr Minns told Sky News.
On Saturday, Mr Latham continued with his refusal to apologise for his now-deleted tweet about Mr Greenwich.
‘Sometimes in public life when you throw out insults they come back at you harder and truer … So boo-hoo Alex Greenwich,’ he said.
Mr Latham said that when Mr Greenwich ‘calls someone a disgusting human being for attending a meeting in a church hall, maybe attention will turn to some of his habits.’
‘Greenwich goes into schools talking to kids about being gay,’ he said.
‘I didn’t want to be accused of anything similar, leaving that kind of content on my socials.’
Mr Latham’s comments this week led to One Nation’s founder and national leader Pauline Hanson to demand he apologise.
She made the demand in a video as she revealed she had been unable to get in contact with Mr Latham.
Mr Latham had refused to apologise on Friday and instead made another tweet.
‘Never apologise, never explain,’ it read.
Mr Minns called him a ‘bigot’ saying the comments were ‘vile and shameful’.
NSW Premier Chis Minns (pictured) called Mr Latham’s tweet ‘vile’ and said his government would try to block him from chairing any committees in the NSW Parliament’s upper house
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich (pictured) has refused to call for Mr Latham to apologise or resign
Mr Minns said that Mr Greenwich was an ‘extraordinarily effective’ politician who ‘manages to elevate the conversation and make major changes in the state …
‘One of the things that can’t be forgotten is that comments like this, even though in and of themselves they’re terrible, they unleash ghouls on people like Alex.
‘It’s not what we need in public life. There should be an unambiguous and universal condemnation of these comments,’ he said.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe also joined the pile-on saying Mr Latham’s tweet was ‘completely unacceptable’.
But she revealed that the parliament is unable to discipline the One Nation leader as he used a loophole in the upper house system allowing him to resign as an MP before the state election and recontest his seat.
This has meant One Nation will be able to fill his previous, now vacant seat with another politician, which is most likely to be Tania Mihailuk who, like Mr Latham, is a former Labor MP.
The homophobic attack on him briefly brought Mr Greenwich to tears on Thursday, he said.
‘This has obviously been hurtful for me. I had a bit of a cry late yesterday at the end of the day,’ he told reporters on Friday.
‘After being in this gig for a decade and getting re-elected, I didn’t think I’d still be subjected to homophobic abuse.’
However, Mr Greenwich refused to call for Mr Latham to apologise or resign.
‘I don’t want to give him another soapbox for him to pretend to be a victim when he seeks to victimise people.’
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