
Mark Latham's alleged behaviour in parliament is a sign of a toxic political culture for women – and that's a much bigger problem to fix
This time, the focus is on New South Wales MP Mark Latham.
Over the years, Latham's behaviour in public life has been characterised by controversy. He allegedly broke a taxi driver's arm in a dispute about a fare; he allegedly denigrated female journalists, and; he's been embroiled in controversy and conflict in his jobs at Sky TV and in his former role as One Nation state leader.
But to fixate on an individual is to overlook a bigger problem that still persists in Australian politics.
Premier Chris Minns this week described Latham's alleged behaviour in parliament as 'troubling', and said he would be 'sacked in any other workplace'.
'In a typical workplace, he'd be out the door tomorrow but I'm not Mark Latham's boss, I'm not responsible for him being in parliament,' Minns said.
Technically, Minns is right. Politicians are elected by voters and cannot easily be removed – for good reason.
Each MP runs their office as a kind of fiefdom and is responsible for hiring and firing their staff, which obviously creates vulnerabilities.
However, as leader of the NSW government, Minns – and his opposition counterpart – are the only ones who can drive change, complex as it is.
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There is something deeply toxic in our political class and our parliamentary workplaces: aggressiveness is lauded, poor behaviour tolerated, and women face ingrained discrimination that starts within our major political parties.
Parliament's formal institutions are weak and designed to deal with other problems – not workplace culture.
The worst behaviour has involved allegations of rape in the case of Brittany Higgins, whose assailant, a fellow staffer, Bruce Lehrmann, was cleared in a criminal case of assaulting the then 24-year-old in 2019 in the office of the federal defence minister where they both worked.
In a civil defamation case, he was found, on the balance of probabilities, to have assaulted her. Lehrmann is appealing.
As the 2021 Jenkins report on federal parliament showed, our parliaments tolerate widespread sexual predation on young female staff, sexist behaviour, and treat the workplace as somehow immune to the standards now common in most workplaces.
Latham began his political life as an anointed son of the Labor party. He was feted by the former prime minister Gough Whitlam as his successor in the seat of Werriwa.
Federal Labor would go on to choose Latham as its leader in opposition because the party valued his pugnacious style over the more gentlemanly and considered personality of Simon Crean, whom he replaced.
After losing the 2004 election, Latham left politics, wrote books and became a media commentator. Controversy trailed him, and he was sacked as co-host of Outsiders on Sky News – a show that thrives on controversy – for derogatory comments he made about a teenage girl.
Latham returned to politics in 2017 and joined the right leaning Liberal Democratic party. In November 2018, he left the Liberal Democrats to join One Nation as its NSW state leader.
But that too soured when he fell out with the party's federal leader, Pauline Hanson. He now sits as an independent in NSW parliament and has six more years to run of his eight-year upper house term.
And the drama continues.
Latham's homophobic slur published on X in 2023 against the independent MP Alex Greenwich resulted in him having to make a defamation payout of $140,000. There are now more proceedings before the NSW Administrative Tribunal as Greenwich seeks further remedies.
Earlier this month, Latham used parliamentary privilege to publicise Greenwich's confidential medical records from the tribunal. Greenwich has used the lower house on several occasions to hit back. It's not what we elected them to do.
Allegations of misuse of parliamentary privilege can be referred to the privileges committee but it cannot deal with the deeper issue of what is acceptable behaviour in a modern 21st-century workplace.
The latest Latham controversies are a result of a relationship breakdown with a former Liberal councillor and businesswoman, Nathalie Matthews. She is pursuing a private apprehended violence order against him in the NSW local court and has alleged a 'sustained pattern' of emotional, physical and financial abuse and pressuring her into 'degrading sexual acts'. Police declined to pursue an apprehended violence order and have not laid any charges against Latham, who has strongly denied the claims.
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Sordid details have spilled into the public domain about his private life, before any court processes have unfolded.
The latest leaks included pictures that Latham is alleged to have taken secretly of female MPs in the upper house and sent to his former partner as text messages with disparaging commentary on the women's appearance.
The alleged use of a camera in the chamber will almost certainly lead to another reference to the privileges committee. But how to deal with the bigger question about attitudes to women?
'Mark's attitude towards his colleagues is disgraceful – instead of showing respect he chooses to objectify and degrade,' Liberal MP Eleni Petinos, one of the women referenced in the texts, told the Daily Telegraph.
'It's just grossly inappropriate. We don't walk around to be objectified everyday.'
Latham said: 'I've broken no law, no Standing Order of the Legislative Council.'
'Obviously those photos were only ever private but three Liberal women took it upon themselves to work for their publication,' he said.
There have also been allegations, alluded to in other leaked text posts, that Latham and his former partner in happier times had sex on a table in Latham's office and filmed the encounter.
While this likely happens in other workplaces, it is undoubtedly not acceptable workplace conduct.
NSW established an independent complaints officer in 2022 'to receive and investigate complaints about minor alleged breaches of the Members' Code of Conduct and to receive and investigate allegations of bullying, harassment, inappropriate behaviour by members'.
But it is unclear what can be done if the offender is an MP.
The federal parliament has wrestled with this problem – it set up the Jenkins review and is now in the throes of implementing its final recommendations.
This includes the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission that will oversee an independent workplace investigation and sanctions framework to enforce behaviour codes for parliamentarians, staff and other people who work in commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
Federal MPs can be fined up to 5% of their salary, kicked off powerful parliamentary committees, and even suspended from parliament under the law.
It also has a remit to improve the culture of the parliament.
Ironically, it may be the $140,000 defamation finding and legal costs that spell the end of Latham's career. A bankrupt person cannot sit in parliament, a rule which harks back to an era when only landed gentry could vote and participate in our democracy.
It's time for our leaders to make fixing the culture inside political parties and inside parliaments a priority. That means thinking deeply about how to balance the rights of people to elect whom they choose with respectful and modern workplaces.
Anne Davies is Guardian Australia's NSW state correspondent
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Sign up: AU Breaking News email When one mother in the Northern Territory arrived at her child's daycare centre to pick them up at the end of the day, she saw her three-year-old – through gaps in a fence – in an outdoor area. The child was standing between the legs of a seated male educator she had never seen before, who was rubbing the child's backside with his hands, according to a statement she would give to NT police, a redacted version of which has been seen by Guardian Australia. The mother immediately reported the incident to the centre and to police. NT police investigated but, according to their record of investigation, released under freedom of information laws, because there were no other witnesses and no CCTV footage, police concluded there was 'not enough evidence' to prosecute and so declined to pursue charges. The early childhood education and care regulator for the territory – the Quality Education and Care Northern Territory (QECNT) – also launched an investigation. But ultimately QECNT concluded: 'As police are not pursuing [the] matter, that QECNT could not take any further action, as there had been nothing to indicate the service should have taken a different course of action.' Because the centre had not breached any rules in relation to the allegation or its handling of it, and police weren't prosecuting the individual, there was no action the QECNT could take against him. The educator was a casual worker who had been placed in the centre by a temp agency. In the QECNT's log of the steps it took as part of its investigation, it noted that after the accused casual educator heard that police were closing the investigation, he had 'phoned to state he has been cleared and requested to come back to work'. The log contains a summary of a conversation between the educator and someone, whose name is redacted but appears to be an employee of the temp agency, saying: 'There have been some services that have requested he don't come back and she can't place him in those services … She indicated he may want to seek employment directly from a service' and that she would 'keep him on the 'books'.' The case highlights an issue that experts say is of key concern when it comes to regulating childcare services: there is little that can be done about educators who are accused of serious incidents, including sexual abuse, but whom police do not prosecute. While an individual daycare centre might then request that a casual worker not come back for any shifts, or bar them from working there, there is nothing to stop the educator from finding employment at another centre, nor any record that the individual has been suspended from or asked not to return to a previous place of employment. This is not a new problem. For years key players in the sector have flagged that childcare services have no way to act on, or keep records of, 'unsubstantiated' complaints. In late 2023 the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (Acecqa) conducted a review into the regulatory system. It found that such cases often came down to 'a child's word against an educator['s]'. 'This often leads to unsubstantiated claims, where no further action is taken,' Acecqa said in its report to state and territory ministers. It said these individual workers, who could be deemed as 'persons of interest', provide a 'unique challenge' from a regulatory monitoring point of view, because the sector doesn't have a clear system for tracking them. '[Childcare services] have no way to share this information with another Approved Provider considering employing that person unless they are contacted as a referee,' it said. The federal education minister, Jason Clare, ordered the review in the wake of charges against Ashley Paul Griffith, now known as Australia's worst paedophile. Griffith was found guilty last year of abusing 73 girls while working in childcare in Brisbane and Italy over two decades. Griffith had also been the subject of previous allegations – one more than a decade before his arrest. One Brisbane mother claimed that in 2009 she went to police to report allegations that Griffith had sexually abused her son but they had not investigated. She told the Nine Network's A Current Affair that her four-year-old son had told her 'Ashley hurt me' and went into graphic detail about the alleged sexual abuse. She took her son to a police station but claims officers only spoke to the boy for a few minutes, did not attempt to build rapport with him and, when he didn't disclose the abuse to them during the brief interview, says she was 'advised that there was nothing to warrant further investigation, and it was over'. 'We left the police station feeling bewildered, disbelieved and possibly crazy.' She told A Current Affair: 'We tried so many years ago to make it known that Ashley Griffith is a dangerous paedophile – no one listened, no one cared.' A report into Griffith by the Queensland Child Death Review Board released this month found that concerns about reputation or legal risks may deter individuals from raising concerns within the childcare sector. The inquiry also found that more than one complaint was made about Griffith to his employers, the Early Childhood Regulatory Authority and the Queensland police, before his arrest. 'Of these complaints, the available information suggests they were not always progressed, and information was not shared between agencies,' the inquiry's interim report said. 'Prior complaints made to QPS did not proceed to prosecution.' This meant that until Griffith's arrest, there was nothing to stop him maintaining his Blue Card – Queensland's working with children check. In its report to ministers, Acecqa recommended the government establish a centralised mechanism for sharing intelligence and keeping records so they could 'monitor and respond to suspected misconduct and allegations about a 'person of interest' who has unsubstantiated allegations'. But these warnings – and the same recommendations – have been sounded before. Almost a decade ago the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse noted that the inability to share information can enable perpetrators 'to move between institutions and jurisdictions and pose ongoing risks to children'. It too made recommendations to ensure better information sharing, and for a consistent national approach for sectors including childcare, backed by legislation, to ensure children were protected. Similarly, the 2021 Tasmanian commission of inquiry highlighted concerns that individuals feared breaching privacy laws when sharing information about alleged abusers, while noting the need to collate information regarding all allegations and incidents of sexual misconduct – even if unsubstantiated. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Anne Hollonds, the national children's commissioner, says the federal government's proposal for a national register of childcare workers was an opportunity to address this enormous gap. But she argues that in developing the register, the government should consider whether it contains records of all serious allegations, substantiated or not. She acknowledges there are serious privacy and legal issues that need to be resolved before including unsubstantiated allegations on a national register, but also says it's an important way to identify a pattern of concerning behaviour. 'I think intuitively what I would say is that there should be a record … of reportable matters, whether substantiated or not. 'And I say that because it's when you look back on cases like the Ashley Griffith one that you see, maybe three reportable matters that were unable to be substantiated, maybe that's a sign of something, a pattern of behaviour, potentially. 'So then the question is: proactively, should we set the bar at a level that allows us to pick up a pattern in real time, even if not substantiated? ... I'm asking that question. I don't know the answer. I think that needs to be considered. 'Given the difficulty of substantiation with non-verbal or barely verbal children, then what other measures should we have in place that are able to pick up a pattern of behaviour that might, in its quantum, be a sufficient cause for concern?' Hollonds says that assessment of who is suitable to care for children 'shouldn't just rely on the working with children's check'. 'If we are prioritising the best interests of children … then we have to really address any barriers … for providers to be able to employ people who have a clean record, or to exclude those who don't,' which she says goes beyond people with criminal convictions. One mother who is all too familiar with the fact that a police conviction is not always possible is Jennifer*. When she went to police to report that her then two-year-old daughter, Ava*, had disclosed she was sexually abused while at daycare, police repeatedly warned her that getting a conviction, or even laying charges against the alleged offender, was highly unlikely. The alleged offending occurred at a family daycare – a service run by an individual in their home, but which still receives the federal childcare subsidy – and the alleged offender was the partner of the woman running the service. Jennifer says she had no idea a man was living at the house where the children were cared for until Ava started talking about him. Eventually, Ava disclosed that the man had exposed himself to her and touched her private parts, Jennifer says. New South Wales police took statements from Ava and her parents and investigated. The Department of Education and the Department of Communities and Justice also investigated the allegations – but no charges were laid. In a summary of its findings, the education department wrote: 'There was insufficient evidence to substantiate a breach of the National Law and Regulations. Insufficient evidence to determine [the alleged offender] posed a risk to children. No further action was taken by the department. The case was closed.' No action was taken against the man or the service, which is still operating, though Guardian Australia has not been able to confirm whether the man is still living at the premises. Jennifer would like to see reform to the way investigations into those working with children – or in close proximity to them – are undertaken, saying that the education department should be able to take some action against people who have had credible allegations made against them, even if the level of proof does not reach that required for a criminal conviction. 'That's a hard one because, you know, you don't want innocent people to be punished,' she says. '[But] the level of evidence required for a conviction in court is so high; for beyond reasonable doubt. And when you've got no physical evidence and you've got the words of the two-year-olds, it's not going to stand up in court.' When a report of a serious incident such as physical or sexual abuse is made against a childcare worker, multiple agencies swing – or should swing – into action. If criminal activity is alleged, police might investigate. The relevant state or territory regulator, often housed within the state's education department, will also receive a report. But data obtained by Guardian Australia through freedom of information laws show that responses and record-keeping vary wildly across the country. Some jurisdictions, such as the NT, recorded just one or two reports of sexual abuse of a child in a childcare setting a year. Others, such as NSW, didn't separate out allegations of physical assaults and sexual abuse and so came back with hundreds. The responses also revealed that in the some states, in the vast majority of cases where allegations of physical and sexual assault of a child are reported and investigated, no action is taken by the regulator. In one state – South Australia – nearly 60% of the 147 reports of physical and sexual abuse of a child by a childcare worker from January 2020 until 31 October 2024 were not investigated by the regulator. It did not issue a single compliance notice (the strongest penalty which can include suspending a centre's right to operate or prohibiting a educator from working) for sexual or physical abuse of children in the nearly five years. NSW had the highest number of reports of physical and sexual abuse of children in childcare centres to the state regulator, by a large margin, with, 1,856 incidents reported from 2020 until 31 October 2024. Investigations were launched into all of the incidents of alleged physical and sexual abuse reported to it. In 1,312 cases (70%), the investigation was completed and 'no further action' was taken. In 13% of cases (244) administrative compliance action was taken, and in 180 cases (9.5%) statutory compliance action was taken. Other incidents were under investigation or handled in another case. A spokesperson for the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority said: 'We work closely with law enforcement and other agencies where required to support investigations. If a police investigation does not result in charges, we still conduct our own investigation and take strong action in line with the provisions of the National Law and Regulations.' The authority can bring prosecutions, and since 2021, it has prosecuted 34 providers, nominated supervisors and individuals, resulting in fines and conditional release, though none of these were in relation to sexual abuse allegations. 'I think one of the problems is we have a national quality framework and we're meant to have a nationally consistent approach … But because individual jurisdictions handle the monitoring and assessment of services, there are irregularities and inconsistencies across the country,' says Prof Marianne Fenech, an early childhood expert from the University of Sydney. Fenech says investment in quality education, including improving staffing levels and pay, and reducing the number of casual workers, was the hard work that needed to be done to improve the childcare industry, rather than the 'reactive strategies' of CCTV and a national register that the government has suggested. 'If we just focus on reactive strategies to safety, we're missing the point and we're not going to deal with the bigger issues that are causing the safety problems in the first instance,' she says. Hollonds says in the last few weeks, as discussions have raged about safety in childcares and the government has introduced its new legislation, difficult conversations about reforming a huge, complicated industry are being had. But in many ways, this is all happening far too late, she says. 'Everyone is looking for answers. [But] it is a concern to me that we didn't work on these much earlier. 'These questions that you're asking me now, they are fundamental questions that go to the strength of the child safeguarding scaffolding underpinning the industry. And really, this should have been worked on many, many years ago … if not before then certainly the Ashley Griffith episode should have been the trigger for very proactive work on the regulatory system, making sure the regulators had the powers and the resources to do their job well, as well as all of these other elements that are being looked at now. 'I really don't understand why we've had to wait so long … before we acted.' *Names have been changed In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International