The New South Wales housing minister, Rose Jackson, has labelled the independent MP Mark Latham a “pig” after allegations he took covert photographs of female colleagues in the upper house and shared them.
The messages, reportedly sent to his former partner Nathalie Matthews and published in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, allegedly included disparaging comments about the female politicians’ appearance.
In one message, the former One Nation MP allegedly made comments about the Liberal MP Eleni Petinos, saying she “looks pregnant”. “I pinched her bum lightly and she smiled!! Change of heart!!”
In another, he allegedly shared a photo of the Greens MP Abigail Boyd in the parliamentary chamber, saying “this is the view I have. Serving the people of NSW. I am a loyal servant”.
At a press conference on Thursday, Jackson said: “Mark Latham is a pig.”
“This man has attacked [Australian domestic violence campaigner] Rosie Batty, telling her to grieve in private. This man is well known on the record, multiple times as a bigot – one of the biggest bigots in the state,” Jackson said.
“It’s extremely confronting for me to think that in a workplace there’s someone who thinks it’s acceptable to take photos of you and to share them with derogatory comments.”
The premier, Chris Minns, labelled the allegedly disparaging remarks made by Latham about female MPs “troubling”, and claimed he would be sacked in any other workplace, but said parliament was not a typical 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,” he said.
Minns urged the parliamentary privileges committee to investigate Latham’s alleged behaviour over the photos and said the government would take advice on whether to refer him to the privileges committee, which oversees the rules of the parliament.
“I certainly think he has broken the standing orders,” he said.
“[The] privileges committee should be investigating these things. They should sanction him or make a decision about sanctioning him and then make a decision about his continued future in the upper house.”
Petinos told the Daily Telegraph the alleged incident never happened and was “an absolute fantasy”.
“That is not in the realms of possibility,” she reportedly said. “Mark’s attitude towards his colleagues is disgraceful – instead of showing respect he chooses to objectify and degrade.”
Latham told Guardian Australia he had broken no law or 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.
“If I moved a motion in the [legislative council] for members to voluntarily surrender their phones for examination by the Daily Telegraph and went around with a bucket, I would come back with an empty bucket. Same as just about every workplace, I suspect.”
Labor’s leader in the legislative council, Penny Sharpe, has already lodged two motions – one with the privileges committee and another broader motion in relation to Latham’s behaviour during the last parliamentary sitting.
Latham used parliamentary privilege to reveal confidential medical records relating to the NSW MP Alex Greenwich, who won $140,000 in a defamation payment last year over a homophobic tweet Latham made about him.
Latham is in the middle of a messy breakup with Matthews, his partner of three years and a businesswoman and former Liberal member in the Sutherland shire.
She is pursuing a private apprehended violence order 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.
Latham has acknowledged sexting his former partner from the chamber. “The big news is I have a private life. I had a sex life that I’ve got to say was fantastic,” he said. Latham said he was guilty of nothing more than being “male” and “human”.
Boyd was contacted for comment.
