A female MP has opened up after Mark Latham used parliamentary privilege to accuse her of being ‘paralytically drunk’ at Parliament and allegedly trying to drive home before being physically stopped by officials.
The NSW One Nation MP, who is a former federal Labor leader, said Shellharbour MP Anna Watson was ‘as drunk as anyone I’ve ever seen in my long time working in a parliament house’.
Ms Watson admitted she had a drink with Mr Latham in a NSW Parliament bar on August 27, 2020 but said: ‘I thought I had his ear and a shoulder to cry on’.
She revealed that ‘stress’ had led her to use alcohol as a coping mechanism but denied trying to drive home that night.
NSW Labor MP Anna Watson (pictured) said she had previously turned to alcohol to ‘deal with stress’
In a statement, Ms Watson said that while she did drink too much sometimes back then, she is now ‘abstaining from alcohol’.
‘During a particularly difficult period of my life where a close family member was experiencing a personal crisis, and out of respect for this family member I will not disclose the details of this matter, but I did turn to alcohol to deal with the stress,’ she said.
On the night in question, the lower house of the NSW Parliament, of which she is a member was not sitting and two politicians met for a catch-up.
‘I was having a drink with Mr Latham in the Parliament House bar. I thought I had his ear and a shoulder to cry on that evening,’ Ms Watson said.
Mr Latham used a NSW Parliament hearing on Tuesday to ask officials if the members of an advisory group overseeing the Broderick report into bad behaviour on Macquarie Street were subject to a ‘vetting process’.
Ms Watson is on that committee.
Mr Latham said she was ‘screaming into her phone: ‘you’re too effing good for him, you’re too effing good for him’,’ on the night in question.
Mark Latham (pictured) has used parliamentary privilege to accuse a Labor MP of being ‘paralytically drunk’ at the NSW Parliament
‘Do you really think she should have been on an advisory group judging the rest of us for serious misconduct?’ Mr Latham asked.
‘Was there a security report later that night concerning the way in which parliamentary staff had to stand in front of the car of this particular member to stop her from driving home in this paralytically drunk state?’
Department of Parliamentary Services boss Mark Webb said he was ‘not aware of any security report along those lines’.
In response, Ms Watson said she ‘knew that I had had too much to drink that evening and so I took the step most people would and called my husband’.
‘He picked me up from the back of the Parliament,’ she said.
‘I did drink too much alcohol during that extremely stressful and traumatic period, I recognise this … (but) I want to be clear – I did not attempt to drive or drive the car.’
She said that ‘during that period and subsequently, I did take too much solace in alcohol,’ but she has since ‘been abstaining from alcohol’.
Labor MP Anthony D’Adam objected to Mr Latham’s questions, saying they were ‘filled with assumptions’.
‘You’re making assertions about a member, the member is not in a position to defend themselves, you should desist from this line of questioning, it’s out of order,’ Mr D’Adam said.
Mr Latham also attacked the Broderick report committee, saying ‘You’ve created this star chamber environment and already three MPs have suffered from it without a single thing proven against them.’
He was referring to Labor MP Walt Secord who has announced his resignation following bullying allegations, which he denies, and Labor’s Tania Mihailuk and Greens MP Jenny Leong, who were also the subject of anonymous complaints.
Liberal MP Matthew Mason-Cox said to Mr Latham: ‘I don’t think you can just sit and wave them away on the basis that there hasn’t been any proof in a court of law.’
Mr Latham replied that he was ‘waving away an anonymous s***sheet’.
Labor MP Anna Watson (pictured) has released an emotional statement after One Nation’s Mark Latham used parliamentary privilege to say she was ‘paralytically drunk’ at the NSW Parliament and that staff had to physically stop her from driving home
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