Mark Latham

Mark Latham, with his Diaries, has cemented his reputation as perhaps the most dangerous and imcompetant ALP candidate for PM this nation has ever seen. He is immature, vicious, narcissistic, hypocritical, emotionally unstable and violent.

These character traits had been evident for some time, and were the reason behind Labor’s huge defeat at the last election. Latham’s approach is neatly summed up by this 2002 quote from him: “I’m a hater. Part of the tribalness of politics is to really dislike the other side with intensity. And the more I see of them the more I hate them. I hate their negativity.”

I did not even consider voting Labor because of this and was horrified at the prospect of a Latham win. Clearly I wasn’t the only one. What astonished me at the time were all the left wing commentators who chalked up the win to Howard’s interest rates campaign. Such blindness. While the scare tactics no doubt helped Howard, they cannot alone account for his astonishing victory.

It was Latham that decided the election, not interest rates.