Mark Latham was sacked as the leader of the New South Wales branch of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation after being stonewalled by “mainstream media” following comments he made about fellow parliamentarian Alex Greenwich.
Hanson dumped Latham from the top job last week as part of an intervention to install a new state executive, making herself the temporary leader of the party and its three upper house MPs.
She said publicly the decision was based on the party’s vote at the March state election and a need to conduct a “comprehensive review of the party’s organisation ahead of future election campaigns”.
But a party source told Guardian Australia the decision to sack Latham as leader came after it became clear that the “mainstream media” would not deal with him following his homophobic outburst towards Greenwich.
“No one has been interested in what he has had to say following the Greenwich matter,” the source said. “If Peter Dutton couldn’t do Sunrise … do you think he’d remain [Liberal] leader?
“There’s no point in having a leader that can’t get their message out.”
The insider claimed there was “no animosity” from Hanson’s side. “It’s purely based on a political decision,” they said.
Latham was widely criticised following a tweet he wrote in March about the member for Sydney shortly after the state election. At the time, Hanson called on Latham to apologise.
“I want you to know that I don’t condone them [the comments] and neither do my members of parliament or party associates,” Hanson said. “They [Latham’s comments] are disgusting.”
Hanson said she had tried to call him but could not get through. It is understood the pair have fractured communications since then.
Greenwich has launched defamation action against Latham over the comment and subsequent statements made to an online radio station. He has separately lodged a complaint of homosexual vilification and sexual harassment against Latham and a police complaint.
While he was a regular commentator across much of the media before the comments, including being included in Channel Seven’s March election broadcast, Latham has made just a handful of appearances since.
Latham has appeared on Chris Smith’s TNT Radio network online show almost a dozen times and he has had a regular slot on host Brent Bultitude’s program on the Newcastle-based station 2HD.
The conservative commentator Andrew Bolt said on 30 March that the tweet was “disgusting” and “homophobic” and promised Latham would never appear on his show again.
“He will be a pariah, and not just here at Sky,” Bolt said.
The removal of Latham as leader leaves a power vacuum that will be filled by Hanson until she decides to open a ballot that could be contested by any of the three upper house MPs: Latham, Rod Roberts and Tania Mihailuk.
A spokesperson said Hanson would consider opening nominations when she was “confident the organisation and parliamentary wings of the party have established an effective, strong and collaborative working relationship under her leadership”.
Roberts would need to resign from his position as deputy president of the chamber if he wished to run for the top job. He was contacted for comment on Monday but referred Guardian Australia to a long Facebook comment from Latham “for a further perspective”.
Latham, a former federal Labor leader, said Hanson had replaced the party executive “without consultation or due process”.
“She has installed her own new state executive with people from Queensland and Tasmania,” he said.
“Good party members who worked exceptionally hard for One Nation have been kicked off the executive.”
He said the “party was moving forward in a sensible, cooperative way but has now been turned upside down by the Queensland intervention”.
He also said the decision was “not about performance” but about money and made claims he had stopped the misuse of taxpayer funds while in the top job.
A spokesperson for Hanson denied the claims of attempts to misuse funds.
Latham has been contacted for comment.
