Ex-Australian Labor Party leader joins far-right anti-immigrant One Nation
By
Mike Head
13 November 2018
A revealing editorial appeared last week in the Australian, the Murdoch media’s national flagship, welcoming the announcement by former Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham that he had joined Senator Pauline Hanson’s extreme right-wing One Nation.
The November 8 editorial described Latham as a “mercurial political figure” who had made “thought-provoking contributions to national debate.” While expressing reservations about Latham’s “volatility,” it declared that he “may not only boost One Nation’s profile in the most populous state but also increase its intellectual depth and guarantee its medium-term existence.”
Latham will be One Nation’s lead candidate in next year’s New South Wales state election, in which he could possibly secure an eight-year term in the state parliament’s upper house. That would hand another prominent platform to Latham, who has been published and featured by Murdoch outlets, such as Sky News and the Sydney Daily Telegraph, as well as the Australian Financial Review, since he quit as Labor leader in 2005 after a disastrous election loss.
Standing alongside a beaming Hanson at a nationally-televised media conference, Latham said he felt compelled to “get stuck in” as a parliamentarian to fight for “civilisational values,” including “love of country,” which were “under siege from the left.”
Hanson, who has agitated against indigenous people, welfare recipients, “Asians” and Muslims since she was first elevated to media prominence in 1996, said she was “so proud” to have Latham on her team.
In subsequent media interviews, Latham said he would campaign on “hot-button issues” such as…