Labor is not going to work with Mark Latham, new NSW premier Chris Minns says

Minns will call on the next Liberal leader to make the same commitment, as vote counting continues after state election

New South Wales’ Labor government will not work with One Nation leader Mark Latham at all, and will begin a process that could again ban independent MP Gareth Ward from parliament.

With vote counting all but ensuring the new premier, Chris Minns, will rule in minority, attention has turned to how the new NSW parliament will manage the re-elected pair.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Mark Latham refuses to apologise for homophobic tweet

NSW environment minister says ‘there’s no place’ for Latham’s behaviour, while MP Alex Greenwich says he is ‘clearly unfit for office’

Mark Latham is thumbing his nose at calls to apologise for a homophobic comment he posted and later deleted about Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.

The tweet posted earlier this week has caused community outrage, and drawn severe condemnation from commentators across the political spectrum.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Pauline Hanson calls on Mark Latham to apologise for ‘disgusting’ homophobic tweet

Independent Alex Greenwich does ‘not intend to engage’ with One Nation MP’s comment aimed at him, but others spring to his defence

The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has called on Mark Latham to apologise for comments about the sexuality of fellow state MP Alex Greenwich that left the New South Wales environment minister, Penny Sharpe, “physically sickened”.

Latham, the NSW One Nation leader, made the comments on Twitter on Thursday morning in response to an article in which Greenwich called Latham “a disgusting human being”. The article was about LGBTQ+ protesters being targeted outside an event Latham spoke at earlier this month.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Two arrested as mob sets upon protesters outside Mark Latham event in Sydney

Rainbow rights group says peaceful protesters were set upon outside a Catholic church in Belfield

A gay and LGBTI rights group says a group attacked peaceful protesters outside a Catholic church in south-west Sydney, where One Nation’s Mark Latham was giving a speech.

Community Action for Rainbow Rights said on Twitter that as they were protesting outside St Michael’s church hall in Belfield, a mob set upon the protesters.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Mark Latham to push for nuclear plants and ‘parental rights’ if made NSW kingmaker

Exclusive: Labor and Greens concerned One Nation could gain at least one additional seat in 25 March election

Mark Latham will seek to overturn a longstanding ban on nuclear power technologies, strengthen “parental rights” and protect Christians from vilification if One Nation picks up enough seats to make him a kingmaker after the New South Wales election.

The former federal Labor leader is attempting to grow his party’s upper house presence from two to four at the 25 March poll, capitalising on voter disillusionment and a loophole that has allowed him to resign and re-run at the top of the ticket.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Targeted discrimination’: NSW government rejects Mark Latham’s trans bill

Proposals included a ban on transgender school students from confidentially coming out and restrictions on sports and toilets

The New South Wales government has confirmed it will not support One Nation MP Mark Latham’s controversial bill to ban discussion of gender diversity in classrooms, saying it could cause “targeted discrimination” against trans students.

First put forward in 2020, Latham’s “Parental Rights” bill sought to prohibit teachers from discussing “the ideology of gender fluidity to children in schools” and prevent schools from supporting transgender students without parental consent.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australia’s right is united by ‘up yours’ contrarianism and Mark Latham is its bellwether | Malcolm Knox

Coronavirus didn’t kill the culture wars, it only sent them into a momentary recess

When Covid-19 hit, I’d been wondering for a long time what glued together the disparate positions of the religious right in Australia: for deregulation yet also massive taxpayer subsidy; for free enterprise yet also against the free movement of labour; for the equality of all freedoms as long as one, religion, is more equal than others; for “our children’s future” yet also against climate science.

During the coronavirus crisis, the patterns began to repeat: divergent positions coalescing under an intellectually amorphous but readily identifiable tribal banner. What unified that tribe was, for want of a better word, a contrarianism, what impolite adherents might call an “up yours” to political correctness.

Continue reading...

Bangers and ballots: everything you need to know about the NSW election

There’s a good chance Saturday’s poll will produce a hung parliament. Here’s how to make your vote count – and where to buy your democracy sausage

Almost 5.3 million people are enrolled to vote at more than 8,000 voting stations in Saturday’s state election. New South Wales has fixed terms, with elections held on the fourth Saturday in March every four years since 1995. About a quarter of voters cast their ballot before election day in 2015, and this is expected to rise in 2019. Almost 850,000 people had voted by Thursday morning.

Continue reading...