Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christanamio.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, July seventeen, twenty twenty five. The Labor government
Speaker 1: must ignore please by disabled Australians to slow down NDIS
Speaker 1: reforms if it wants to keep the ballooning scheme in check.
Speaker 1: That's the frank assessment of bureaucrats tasked with slashing NDIS
Speaker 1: spending by twenty billion dollars. Chinese Premier Li Chang has
Speaker 1: warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi against stripping a Chinese company
Speaker 1: of its half a billion dollar port of Darwin lease.
Speaker 1: For all the latest from the PM's trip to China,
Speaker 1: visit the Australian dot com dot AU. A scandal enveloping
Speaker 1: former Labour leader Mark Latham is growing and other MPs
Speaker 1: are being dragged into the drama. Latham's former girlfriend made
Speaker 1: shocking allegations of abuse against the Maverick, New South Wales independent,
Speaker 1: claims he's vehemently denied. That's today's episode. A note before
Speaker 1: we begin. This episode contains allegations of abuse and descriptions
Speaker 1: of alleged violence. When Mark Latham was elected Labor leader
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, he was the youngest person
Speaker 1: to hold the title in more than a century. In
Speaker 1: the years that followed, he gained a reputation as a
Speaker 1: maverick and a champion of outsider politics.
Speaker 2: Now am I good?
Speaker 3: Are you?
Speaker 2: I'm very well.
Speaker 1: His tenure at the top of Labor lasted for about
Speaker 1: eighteen months, when in early two thousand and five he
Speaker 1: resigned as leader and from Parliament. But the controversies kept coming.
Speaker 2: I'm glad to hear it. I ended up in hospital close.
Speaker 4: Leaders were focused on the economy today, but once again
Speaker 4: about some former Labor leader still the line latch.
Speaker 2: Working at the Channel nine.
Speaker 4: I don't know anything about that mark, if you want
Speaker 4: to work with Channel nine.
Speaker 2: I've had as good a look at Ascot on page
Speaker 2: eight of the Australian said, and I don't think she's
Speaker 2: got six apol at all. He must have had the
Speaker 2: biggles on because she's nott that good of thought. There's
Speaker 2: a demonization of men here where if you listen to
Speaker 2: a de Rosi battie, every man is a potential wife basher.
Speaker 2: Every woman is potentially at risk.
Speaker 1: He resurfaced as leader of the New South Wales branch
Speaker 1: of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in twenty eighteen. That
Speaker 1: didn't last either.
Speaker 2: Mark Latham has hit out at One Nation leader Pauline
Speaker 2: Hanson after he was dumped as leader of the party's
Speaker 2: New South Wales branch.
Speaker 1: Last year. While sitting as a freshly independent member on
Speaker 1: the New South Wales Legislative Council, he was ordered to
Speaker 1: pay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich one hundred and forty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars over a defamatory tweet, and just last month, New
Speaker 1: South Wales Premier Chris Mins unloaded on Latham like this
Speaker 1: and One Nation voting together.
Speaker 5: Day after day after day to.
Speaker 4: Platform one of the most shameful bigots in New South Wales.
Speaker 1: Now Latham is at the center of serious allegations about
Speaker 1: the way he conducts himself behind closed doors.
Speaker 4: Mister Latham engaged in physical violence, including pushing me against walls,
Speaker 4: forcing me out the door, throwing a plate at me
Speaker 4: during an argument, and driving at me with his vehicle,
Speaker 4: hitting me on the side mirror and causing a bruise.
Speaker 4: This is a voice actor reading excerpts of documents filed
Speaker 4: in court by Mark Latham's former partner Natalie Matthews. She's
Speaker 4: a Liberal Party member and former Sutherlandshire Council candidate who
Speaker 4: runs a global freight company. Matthew says she was in
Speaker 4: an on again, off again relationship with Latham for all.
Speaker 1: Most three years, and alleges that in that time Latham
Speaker 1: engaged in a sustained pattern of emotional, psychological, sexual and
Speaker 1: financial abuse, including forcing degrading sexual acts, pressuring me to
Speaker 1: engage in sexual acts with others, demanding I call him master,
Speaker 1: telling me I was his property, and repeatedly telling me
Speaker 1: that my only value to him was for sex, to
Speaker 1: demean and to control me. The thirty seven year old
Speaker 1: said she feared Latham would expose intimate photos of her
Speaker 1: if she resisted his demands or left the relationship, and
Speaker 1: alleges he put pressure on her regarding her father's will.
Speaker 1: She seeking an order that would prohibit Mark Latham from
Speaker 1: coming within one hundred meters of her because of the
Speaker 1: way he's allegedly behaved when they've broken up in the past.
Speaker 1: She claims she has an ongoing reasonable fear of harassment,
Speaker 1: intimidation and potential harm the Australians. Liam Mendez reported New
Speaker 1: South Wales police are aware of Natalie Matthew's allegations against
Speaker 1: Mark Latham, but they haven't pressed charges or taken out
Speaker 1: any orders on her behalf. Here's Liam.
Speaker 3: So Natalie Matthews has been very reluctant to speak publicly,
Speaker 3: but she's consented to being identified in these reports by
Speaker 3: The Australian. Natalie Matthews has been to police about half
Speaker 3: a dozen times before this story came out this week.
Speaker 3: She has been a meeting with legal representatives and she's
Speaker 3: preparing to go back to the police to try and
Speaker 3: essentially tell her side of the story to the police
Speaker 3: and possibly see to have Latham either charged or have
Speaker 3: an AVO served on him by police. But previously the
Speaker 3: police have not been provided with sufficient evidence essentially for
Speaker 3: them to lay charges.
Speaker 1: Mark Latham has vehemently denied the allegations made by his
Speaker 1: ex partner.
Speaker 3: At first, when I spoke to him, he did not
Speaker 3: want to speak, He didn't want to hear about the allegations.
Speaker 5: He didn't want to see the order.
Speaker 3: I had a copy of it with me, and afterwards
Speaker 3: he sent a couple of text messages essentially saying that
Speaker 3: the claims were absolute rubbish.
Speaker 5: He downplayed the level.
Speaker 3: Of the relationship that they were in, and I've seen
Speaker 3: a lot of evidence that goes against his claims that
Speaker 3: they were in just a situationship. We published in The
Speaker 3: Australian on Wednesday that Miss s Latham had proposed to
Speaker 3: Miss Matthews and there was a ring involved, and I've
Speaker 3: seen correspondence between Miss Matthews and a friend where she
Speaker 3: announced that engagement.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday, Latham addressed the allegations on Chris Smith's two
Speaker 1: SM radio program.
Speaker 2: Well, the big news is I had a private life.
Speaker 2: I had a sex life that I've got to say
Speaker 2: was fantastic.
Speaker 1: He was fired up because sexually explicit text messages allegedly
Speaker 1: sent by Lathan while he was on the floor of
Speaker 1: the New South Wales Parliament had been made public. Voice
Speaker 1: actors are reading some of the tamer texts from the
Speaker 1: trove released. The others are considerably more racy, naughty. It
Speaker 1: was oops, made it back for the first vote after dinner.
Speaker 4: Other activities best one you are quite amazing, Mike. Dopamine,
Speaker 4: serotonin and oxytocin.
Speaker 5: I needed that, Thanks, bab, You're amazing.
Speaker 2: If I'm the only Christian, I'm the only person in
Speaker 2: Australia who are in a work environment, is engaged in
Speaker 2: a bit of playful sex talk with their partner, then
Speaker 2: oh by everyone a lottery ticket tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Latham also had this to say about the allegations made
Speaker 1: by his ex.
Speaker 2: She tried to get a AVO with the police and
Speaker 2: in the current environment, if you miss out with the
Speaker 2: police failing to issue an av O, I think that
Speaker 2: tells you a lot about the substance of the matter.
Speaker 2: Just about all the things she's complaining about, she initiated
Speaker 2: in consensual arrangements. There are inaccuracies, there a lack of context,
Speaker 2: so it's pretty slap happy journalis. I don't know how
Speaker 2: they publish that stuff with the inaccuracies.
Speaker 1: The Australian, of course, stands by our reporting. Coming up
Speaker 1: why the allegations against Mark Latham could be a headache
Speaker 1: for the New South Wales premiere as controversy sworld On Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Premier Chris Mins said the alleged conduct of Independent MP
Speaker 1: Mark Lay on the parliamentary floor is not on The
Speaker 1: Premier said he'll pursue motions to officially condemn Latham, but
Speaker 1: hasn't asked him to stand aside because he suspected the
Speaker 1: Maverick MP would do the opposite, But that might not
Speaker 1: be the end of it for the New South Wales Parliament.
Speaker 1: Here's Lea Mendez.
Speaker 5: There is a lot more to this story.
Speaker 3: There's a trove of messages that have already been released.
Speaker 3: Some of these messages are very sexually explicit in nature,
Speaker 3: and they also alleged to have been sent. In fact,
Speaker 3: mister Latham is admitted that a lot of these messages
Speaker 3: were actually sent while he was on the floor of
Speaker 3: the New South Wales Parliament. The interesting thing here is
Speaker 3: that there is reference in some of these messages to
Speaker 3: other members of Parliament in a sexual manner. So it's
Speaker 3: going to be interesting to see where this goes. It's
Speaker 3: certainly not the end of the story here. I think
Speaker 3: the can of worm's poss we might have only just
Speaker 3: been opened, and the result a lot more to come.
Speaker 1: The matter will return to the Downing Center Local Court
Speaker 1: later this month. Liam Mendes is a reporter with The Australian.
Speaker 1: If you need support, contact one eight hundred respect for
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Speaker 1: latest from this story, and for all the nation's best news,
Speaker 1: sport and politics. Visit the Australian dot com dot au