Mark Latham dropped as leader of One Nation in NSW

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Mark Latham has been dumped as leader of One Nation in New South Wales in an unceremonious move by federal leader Pauline Hanson. Senator Hanson has cited a poor result at the state election for her decision to sack Mr Latham and install herself on the state executive instead.

Transcript

00:00 One Nation divided. After months of tensions between the two, Pauline Hanson says she's

00:08 sacked her New South Wales leader, Mark Latham. Senator Hanson has released a statement saying

00:13 she's replaced the state executive leadership team and removed Mr Latham as parliamentary

00:19 leader, blaming state election results, which she says saw One Nation's vote drop by 14

00:25 per cent. In a Facebook post, Mark Latham says the move was without consultation or

00:31 due process, and cited Senator Hanson's own drop in popularity, saying if she is worried

00:37 about underperformance, her best solution is to buy a mirror.

00:42 The party's always had a problem with internal democracy and this just seems to be another

00:46 chapter in that tale.

00:48 Mark Latham is being sued for defamation over a graphic tweet sent earlier this year to

00:53 independent MP Alex Greenwich. At the time, Pauline Hanson condemned the tweet and issued

00:59 a please explain.

01:00 I've actually tried to ring Mark a couple of times to no avail and I have clearly sent

01:06 a text message to him telling him my views.

01:10 Mark Latham's statement indicates he'll stay on as a member of One Nation. He's one of

01:15 three New South Wales upper house One Nation MPs. And while Pauline Hanson says he's no

01:21 longer the leader of the parliamentary party, Mark Latham says that's up to his colleagues

01:26 to decide.

01:28 Mr Latham was also federal Labor leader in the early 2000s, but resigned after losing

01:33 the 2004 election. Today's developments prompted this rebuke from Liberal MP Matt Keane.

01:40 Mark Latham is nothing but a toxic failure. Instead of searching for a fourth party to

01:45 join, he should reflect on his latest political disaster and get out of politics.

01:51 Mr Latham says he'll have more to say next week.

01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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