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ABC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Why Mark Latham is likely to remain in NSW parliament
As politicians call for Mark Latham's conduct in parliament to be investigated by the privileges committee, a top constitutional lawyer says it would be "very, very difficult" to have him expelled even if the allegations were proven. It follows media reports he allegedly took photos of female colleagues speaking in parliament and made disparaging comments about them in private messages and participated in a consensual sex video in his office. Mr Latham has denied any wrongdoing. In posts on X, Mr Latham said the media had used his messages out of context, cherry-picking and missing in-jokes. Of the alleged sex video, Mr Latham has repeatedly said no media claimed to have seen the alleged tape and there was "no suggestion of any law or rule broken". NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Thursday if proved true, Mr Latham's alleged behaviour in the parliamentary chamber "almost certainly" broke standing orders. Mr Minns said the privileges committee should investigate the allegations and "make a decision about sanctioning him". in an interview with 2SM, Mr Latham said he had not breached any standing order of NSW parliament. The leader of government in the upper house, Penny Sharpe, has also said she would move a motion to refer Mr Latham to the privileges committee for allegedly "disclosing authorised information" after he used parliamentary privilege to allegedly reveal confidential information from a psychologist's report prepared for civil proceedings brought by MP Alex Greenwich. Mr Latham said his remarks were not based on confidential information. He asked for a fair go from voters who said he should leave parliament. "They've got a rigorous process there about behaviour inside the parliament, a complaints officer, a committee of woke people who monitor what you do in the building," he said. "I've never received notification of any complaint through that process. "So for any of you listeners saying kick him off, what happened to the principle of innocent and innocent until proven guilty?" Mr Latham's parliamentary term expires in 2031. University of Sydney professor of constitutional law Anne Twomey said NSW parliament had the power to expel MPs — unlike in federal parliament after such powers were abolished in 1987. But she added that in NSW it was "very, very hard to expel" an MP. Professor Twomey said an MP could face expulsion if they committed criminal offences or engaged in conduct that brings the house into disrepute; however, this has very rarely happened since the 1800s. "As a general principle, it only gets used when the person has had findings made against them," she said. Mr Latham is not accused of any criminal offences, and no inappropriate conduct has been proven. While Mr Minns said if the allegations against Mr Latham were proven "in a typical workplace, he'd be gone tomorrow", he acknowledged it was voters who elected him to parliament. Professor Twomey said the threshold for expulsion was very high, and there were many historic examples of MPs who had avoided expulsion threats. In 1997, NSW Labor MP Franca Arena faced a motion calling for her suspension until she apologised after using parliamentary privilege to allege a criminal conspiracy by certain politicians to cover up paedophilia, which a special commission concluded was false. She refused to apologise but read a statement of regret, which attracted enough support from enough Coalition and crossbench MPs to avoid suspension. Another ground for expulsion is bankruptcy. In Victoria, former state Liberal leader John Pesutto narrowly avoided bankruptcy and possible expulsion from parliament after he was able to secure a loan from the party to help cover a $2.3 million legal payout he owes MP Moira Deeming from a defamation case. Mr Latham was last year ordered to pay $140,000 in a defamation suit after making graphic, homophobic comments in a tweet about Mr Greenwich and has appealed. The extent of Mr Latham's financial resources and ability to pay is not clear. The NSW parliament also has powers to temporarily suspend MPs and in 2022 the then-Coalition government suspended two of its MPs. Professor Twomey said the power to expel or suspend MPs was problematic, as it could be used for political purposes. "I think the better answer would be maybe shorter terms for the Legislative Council so that the people in the end get to decide."
The Advertiser
01-07-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Newcastle sites receive state's largest ever heritage grants
Newcastle Post Office and the Victoria Theatre have each been awarded a $1 million grant aimed at preserving the heritage of the state significant sites. The two projects have received a major Activating State Heritage Grant - the largest grants ever awarded under the decades-long program. It is aimed at helping the post office and the theatre re-open their doors to the public, reinstating them as cornerstone attractions in Newcastle. The grants are part of a record $8.65 million awarded to 140 recipients to boost the protection and restoration of heritage sites across NSW, under the 2025-27 NSW Heritage Grants Program. Other recipients include Maitland Town Hall, Birubi Point Aboriginal Place and East Maitland's Glebe Cemetery. The state government has increased the total investment by $2.65 million from the previous round. Almost 90 councils will also receive $25,000 to fund heritage initiatives at the local level. Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe said the government wanted to preserve "the historic places that matter the most - whether it is iconic buildings, local landmarks or sites of deep Aboriginal cultural significance". "Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW," she said. "These grants will help ensure these special places are restored and protected for more people to enjoy. "These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future." Newcastle Post Office and the Victoria Theatre have each been awarded a $1 million grant aimed at preserving the heritage of the state significant sites. The two projects have received a major Activating State Heritage Grant - the largest grants ever awarded under the decades-long program. It is aimed at helping the post office and the theatre re-open their doors to the public, reinstating them as cornerstone attractions in Newcastle. The grants are part of a record $8.65 million awarded to 140 recipients to boost the protection and restoration of heritage sites across NSW, under the 2025-27 NSW Heritage Grants Program. Other recipients include Maitland Town Hall, Birubi Point Aboriginal Place and East Maitland's Glebe Cemetery. The state government has increased the total investment by $2.65 million from the previous round. Almost 90 councils will also receive $25,000 to fund heritage initiatives at the local level. Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe said the government wanted to preserve "the historic places that matter the most - whether it is iconic buildings, local landmarks or sites of deep Aboriginal cultural significance". "Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW," she said. "These grants will help ensure these special places are restored and protected for more people to enjoy. "These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future." Newcastle Post Office and the Victoria Theatre have each been awarded a $1 million grant aimed at preserving the heritage of the state significant sites. The two projects have received a major Activating State Heritage Grant - the largest grants ever awarded under the decades-long program. It is aimed at helping the post office and the theatre re-open their doors to the public, reinstating them as cornerstone attractions in Newcastle. The grants are part of a record $8.65 million awarded to 140 recipients to boost the protection and restoration of heritage sites across NSW, under the 2025-27 NSW Heritage Grants Program. Other recipients include Maitland Town Hall, Birubi Point Aboriginal Place and East Maitland's Glebe Cemetery. The state government has increased the total investment by $2.65 million from the previous round. Almost 90 councils will also receive $25,000 to fund heritage initiatives at the local level. Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe said the government wanted to preserve "the historic places that matter the most - whether it is iconic buildings, local landmarks or sites of deep Aboriginal cultural significance". "Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW," she said. "These grants will help ensure these special places are restored and protected for more people to enjoy. "These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future." Newcastle Post Office and the Victoria Theatre have each been awarded a $1 million grant aimed at preserving the heritage of the state significant sites. The two projects have received a major Activating State Heritage Grant - the largest grants ever awarded under the decades-long program. It is aimed at helping the post office and the theatre re-open their doors to the public, reinstating them as cornerstone attractions in Newcastle. The grants are part of a record $8.65 million awarded to 140 recipients to boost the protection and restoration of heritage sites across NSW, under the 2025-27 NSW Heritage Grants Program. Other recipients include Maitland Town Hall, Birubi Point Aboriginal Place and East Maitland's Glebe Cemetery. The state government has increased the total investment by $2.65 million from the previous round. Almost 90 councils will also receive $25,000 to fund heritage initiatives at the local level. Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe said the government wanted to preserve "the historic places that matter the most - whether it is iconic buildings, local landmarks or sites of deep Aboriginal cultural significance". "Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW," she said. "These grants will help ensure these special places are restored and protected for more people to enjoy. "These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future."
The Age
30-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
The next Enmore Theatre is not where you expect
Built in 1881, the grand Victoria Theatre in Newcastle's city centre flourished in the era of silent pictures and the heights of vaudeville, featuring a galaxy of stars from trick cyclists and magicians to patterologists – jokesters who traded in gags and puns. The venue narrowly dodged death by demolition a decade ago when Century Management, the owners of the Enmore Theatre and other venues across Sydney, purchased the building with a $12 million plan to restore it. Now a $1 million heritage grant from the NSW government announced on Tuesday will bring the project to transform the old theatre into the equivalent of the Enmore in Newy, as the old industrial town is affectionately known, a little closer. It is one of two Newcastle projects that have received a $1 million 'activating state heritage' grant to revitalise the city's centre and attract visitors, the largest grants made under the NSW program. The second $1 million grant, to the Schwartz Family Company, will turn the old GPO by Walter Liberty Vernon into Australia's first Aboriginal medical museum and a community hub. Loading The projects were among 140 grant recipients awarded a total of $8.65 million in the 2025-2027 round, announced by the NSW Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe to celebrate, preserve and revive historical projects and sites across the state. These range from changes to preserve culturally sensitive parts of Birubi Point Aboriginal Place to the conservation of the Bushranger Hotel in Goulburn. Up 44 per cent on the 2023-2025 round of grants, the increase coincides with consultation on the government's draft heritage strategy, open for feedback until July 13. It has heard maintaining heritage is a 'black hole' of time, money and bureaucratic battles. Sharpe said the record investment highlighted the government's commitment. 'Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW. These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future.'
Sydney Morning Herald
30-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The next Enmore Theatre is not where you expect
Built in 1881, the grand Victoria Theatre in Newcastle's city centre flourished in the era of silent pictures and the heights of vaudeville, featuring a galaxy of stars from trick cyclists and magicians to patterologists – jokesters who traded in gags and puns. The venue narrowly dodged death by demolition a decade ago when Century Management, the owners of the Enmore Theatre and other venues across Sydney, purchased the building with a $12 million plan to restore it. Now a $1 million heritage grant from the NSW government announced on Tuesday will bring the project to transform the old theatre into the equivalent of the Enmore in Newy, as the old industrial town is affectionately known, a little closer. It is one of two Newcastle projects that have received a $1 million 'activating state heritage' grant to revitalise the city's centre and attract visitors, the largest grants made under the NSW program. The second $1 million grant, to the Schwartz Family Company, will turn the old GPO by Walter Liberty Vernon into Australia's first Aboriginal medical museum and a community hub. Loading The projects were among 140 grant recipients awarded a total of $8.65 million in the 2025-2027 round, announced by the NSW Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe to celebrate, preserve and revive historical projects and sites across the state. These range from changes to preserve culturally sensitive parts of Birubi Point Aboriginal Place to the conservation of the Bushranger Hotel in Goulburn. Up 44 per cent on the 2023-2025 round of grants, the increase coincides with consultation on the government's draft heritage strategy, open for feedback until July 13. It has heard maintaining heritage is a 'black hole' of time, money and bureaucratic battles. Sharpe said the record investment highlighted the government's commitment. 'Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW. These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future.'
Miami Herald
27-06-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Ship mysteriously sunk off Sydney in 1904. Now, first divers visit ‘holy grail'
On a stormy night in 1904, a steamship off the coast of Sydney, Australia, sank. The ship seemingly vanished, leaving no survivors, no explanations and no trace of its final resting place — until a chance discovery in 2022. Now, over 120 years after its sinking, scuba divers visited the wreck for the first time. The SS Nemesis steamship, built in 1880, spent several decades carrying people and cargo along the Australian coast before its mysterious sinking in July 1904, the Sydney Project, a citizen science initiative focused on exploring shipwrecks, wrote in a June 24 blog post. Investigations into the tragedy, which killed 32 people, couldn't figure out why the ship sank or where it went. 'The loss of (SS) Nemesis has been described as one of Sydney's most enduring maritime mysteries and has even been described by shipwreck researchers as the 'holy grail,'' Penny Sharpe, the New South Wales (NSW) Minister for Environment and Heritage, said in a 2024 news release. But the breakthrough rediscovery of the SS Nemesis didn't come from shipwreck devotees. Instead, a 'remote sensing company Subsea Professional Marine Services stumbled across the wreck while trying to locate cargo containers lost off the coast of Sydney' in 2022, the NSW Heritage Department said. Experts immediately suspected the wreck was the SS Nemesis and confirmed its identification in 2024 after a series of follow-up surveys. Enter the Sydney Project: Scuba divers Samir Alhafith, Dave Apperley, Rus Pnevski and John Wooden decided they wanted to see the SS Nemesis — an 'ambitious mission,' the team wrote in a June 20 Facebook post. The nearly 240-foot long SS Nemesis sits about 16 miles off the coast of Sydney at a depth of about 525 feet, NSW officials wrote in a June 23 Facebook post. The Sydney Project team had their first dive attempt thwarted by weather conditions, but their second attempt on June 18 proved successful. The dive required advanced equipment and a six-hour process to resurface all for nine minutes of time at the wreck. It was worth it for the 'history making dive,' according to the team. 'We landed closer to the port bow of the wreck and proceeded towards the midship,' the team said. They saw the mast, lines from a crane, main deck, bridge and the doomed coal cargo scattered around the ship. Photos show what remains of the SS Nemesis. Overall, the wreck is encrusted, slightly deteriorated and a hub of marine life. 'This shipwreck is a little bit unique to others because the bow and the stern, so the front and the back of the ship, are both collapsed, pretty much to the sand line, which is unusual,' Samir Alhafith, the team leader, told the Australian Broadcasting Company. 'I have never seen that before.' 'It looks like something extremely violent happened to the wreck,' Alhafith told the outlet. Marine archaeologists are still piecing together what happened to the SS Nemesis, and the Sydney Project's footage — the first taken of the wreck by scuba divers — will help this process. The leading explanation for the sinking is that 'the engine became overwhelmed in the storm, and when SS Nemesis was hit by a large wave she sank too quickly for life boats to be deployed,' officials said in a 2024 release. Tim Smith, a director with Heritage NSW, told the Australian Broadcasting Company that 'These four divers have shone a light on the vessel's rich legacy, capturing never-seen-before footage of the ship up close. What they recorded … will help us join the dots in understanding its demise.'
