Latham's 'racy' Behaviour

The Age

Saturday September 17, 2005

By MICHAEL GORDON and MICHELLE GRATTAN

FORMER national ALP secretary Gary Gray has accused Mark Latham of making remarks that were "a little risque, racy and rude" to Liberal staffers, which led to a complaint to the Labor Party from John Howard's office.

In a new book by Age journalist Annabel Crabb, Mr Gray says he approached Gough Whitlam in 1997 to counsel Mr Latham and to settle the issue "with a quiet word".

But Mr Latham has strongly disputed the account, blaming senior Labor figure Robert Ray for starting a "false" smear and bitterly attacking Mr Gray for spreading and giving credibility to the claim of bad behaviour by approaching Mr Whitlam.

He told the ABC the meeting with Mr Whitlam was awkward because of Mr Whitlam's age, and the smear was subsequently circulated by Labor Party figures, including Mr Beazley and Senator Ray. He now maintains the smear was the main reason he quit Mr Beazley's front bench in 1998.

Mr Latham has also accused Labor colleagues of spreading an untrue story that frontbencher Julia Gillard had to rescue South Australian Labor MP Kate Ellis from Mr Latham late last year. Both women have denied there was such an incident.

On the ABC's Lateline last night, Mr Latham said former Labor senate leader John Faulkner had warned him when he became leader in 2003 that the Liberal Party would "do anything" to run a sex scandal against him, including "planting women in bars".

But Mr Latham said that, in the end, it was "the stuff that had been generated inside the Labor Party" that found its way into the media.

Mr Latham has widened his allegations and attacks, accusing Labor senate deputy leader Stephen Conroy of contributing to the suicide of MP Greg Wilton and claiming Mr Beazley as leader failed to sufficiently support Mr Wilton before he died.

Mr Latham said Senator Conroy was behind a story that Mr Wilton's preselection was in doubt, asserting the story was a trigger for the suicide.

Mr Beazley, who has already dismissed Mr Latham's claims as "fanciful", refused to be drawn on the new claims regarding Mr Wilton yesterday, including Mr Latham's assertion: "Kim didn't talk to Greg, ring him, offer him support in any shape or form. I just find that unbelievable . . . It was a pretty cold-hearted political attitude that he took, and ultimately we lost a human life of a colleague and, in my case, a mate."

Mr Latham also put the knife into union leader and parliamentary aspirant Bill Shorten, one of Labor's rising stars. He accused Mr Shorten of showing "contempt for his members" by saying different things publicly and privately about the Australia-US free trade agreement.

He made a similar charge against ACTU secretary Greg Combet, saying both men had publicly opposed the deal but privately urged him to "get this through" as a matter of political necessity.

Mr Shorten and Mr Combet refused to comment last night.

Ms Gillard, the one senior Labor figure spared in The Latham Diaries, declared her full loyalty for Mr Beazley, while paying tribute to Mr Latham.

"It saddens me greatly to see Mark's loss of faith in the power of politics to make change for the better. It saddens me even more to see Mark's loss of faith in the Labor Party," Ms Gillard said.

As the party tries to contain the damage from Mr Latham's attacks, Mr Beazley told the ALP national executive that Mr Latham had done the Labor leadership a disservice and warned people not to get involved in a slanging match.

In New York, Prime Minister John Howard said Labor knew of Mr Latham's personal faults when it voted him in as leader.

"I remind the Australian public that he was chosen by the Australian Labor Party with a full knowledge of what sort of person he was," he said.

In Crabb's book, Mr Gray says he received a call from Senator Ray about Mr Latham's "unnecessarily ebullient behaviour", explaining: "He would have a few drinks and ring ministerial offices and engage in banter. He didn't care necessarily who it was who answered the telephone so long as it was female.

"Sometimes his comments were a little risque, racy and rude, which resulted in a complaint that went from Tony Nutt (in the PM's office) to Robert Ray, and Robert Ray ringing me."

Senator Ray could not be contacted for comment in New York last night.

Mr Gray's account describes the alleged behaviour as "relatively harmless, if foolish" and says Mr Whitlam was immediately protective of his protege. He told Crabb that Mr Whitlam told him: "You know Gary, when you are tall and handsome, and powerfully built, women throw themselves at you.

"He kept saying to me, 'Power is an aphrodisiac, you know, Gary'."

Crabb's book, Losing It, asserts that Mr Latham was appalled at the attempt to involve Whitlam "and the affair further poisoned the relationship with Kim Beazley's office".

Mr Latham told the ABC that when he accused Mr Beazley of spreading the innuendo, Mr Beazley said he did not know anything about it.

It is now clear that the only specific allegation against Mr Latham at the time, that he sexually harassed Penny Fischer (daughter of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward) when she was a staffer in the office of Liberal minister Warwick Parer, was untrue.

Mr Latham has always denied any such episode. Ms Fischer yesterday said there had been no bad behaviour and she had not made any complaint.

INSIDERS TELL

The plan to make Mark Latham prime minister was codenamed 'Blizzard'. As the campaign fell apart, one ALP official renamed it a 'blizzard of s . . .'

EXCLUSIVE EXTRACTS

From 'Losing it' - Annabel Crabb's book about Labor in opposition.

THE OPENING SHOT THAT BACKFIRED

Latham hastily abandoned his first foray into the 2004 election campaign on learning a young Melbourne couple were not committed Labor voters. His "interest rates guarantee" stunt - he had planned to nail a giant cardboard pledge to the frame of their house - went ahead in a hotel, with resulting poor media exposure. Campaign strategists were furious and blamed Latham for being too risk-averse. Latham blamed his chief of staff, Mike Richards, for the failure.

POLICY ON THE RUN

Frontbencher Stephen Smith, drafted into the campaign's second week, found a "mad scramble" to complete Labor's tax policy, the day before it was to be unveiled. "Mate, this is a bit of a shambles," he said to Senate leader John Faulkner. "You haven't seen anything yet," Faulkner laughed.

ANOTHER LOST OPPORTUNITY

Advisers were dismayed when Latham knocked back the chance to profit from a display of financial restraint after Howard splurged $6 billion in new promises, confirming their growing suspicion that he was risk-averse and inflexible.

THE FOREST FURORE

Even though it involved the expenditure of nearly $1 billion, the forestry policy was not approved by Labor's internal expenditure review process. The $800 million compensation offer was an educated guess - and allowed Howard to outmanoeuvre Latham, receiving rousing cheers from forestry workers.

INSIGHT

Losing it

Mark Latham is blaming his colleagues,but, as Age journalist Annabel Crabb reveals in a new book, the last Labor campaign was a shambles - and much of it was the leader's fault.

TOMORROW

How Mark Latham lost the plot

The inside story of his self-destruction as leader of the ALP.

More exclusive extracts from Annabel Crabb's book of Labor in Opposition in tomorrow's Sunday Age.

© 2005 The Age

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