Gay men in New South Wales could have grounds to bring a complaint of homosexual vilification against Mark Latham over a tweet that saw him labeled a bigot by the premier and brought independent MP Alex Greenwich to tears, legal experts say.
But University of NSW constitutional law expert George Williams said the One Nation state leader was unlikely to be sacked from his job.
The state’s new premier, Chris Minns, labelled Latham a bigot and praised Greenwich’s poise and resolve in the wake of Thursday’s tweet.
“They’re vile and shameful comments and I think he’s revealed himself to be a bigot,” Minns said on Friday.
He called on politicians to join in “unambiguous and universal condemnation” of comments like Latham’s that unleash “ghouls” on their recipients.
Latham made the comments in response to an article in which Greenwich called him “a disgusting human being”. The article was about LGBTQ+ protesters being targeted outside an event he spoke at earlier this month.
In response, Latham made gratuitous comments about a sexual act, directed at Greenwich. Guardian Australia has chosen not to publish the full comment.
It has since been condemned across the political spectrum including by Anthony Albanese and the federal One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson.
Williams said the government could censure Latham but the measure was just a “symbolic slap on the wrist”, adding that suspension or expulsion were the other options.
“Parliament does have some powers but it would need, I think, to be a stronger case to use them,” he said, pointing to Gareth Ward’s suspension last year.
“It’s why you do see parliamentarians often getting up to bad behaviour without consequence.”
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s policy director, Alastair Lawrie, believed a complaint of homosexual vilification could be lodged under the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act because the tweet was posted publicly and it was arguable that it could incite hatred towards, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of gay men.
“A complaint would not necessarily need to be brought by Mr Greenwich – it could be made by or on behalf of any gay man, or a group of gay men, in NSW,” he said.
“This reflects the fact that public vilification causes harm beyond its direct target.”
While the ability for such a complaint to be lodged was a strength of the current act, Lawrie said it also highlighted how outdated it was.
“The act is incredibly outdated – because only ‘homosexuality’ is named, only gay people could bring complaints, rather than bisexual people,” he said.
“Non-binary people and intersex people similarly aren’t covered under this outdated and broken law, meaning they also don’t enjoy protection against vilification, or even discrimination.”
Just.Equal Australia’s spokesperson, Rodney Croome, also believed there was a case to be made under the state’s vilification provisions.
“Mark Latham’s comment shows that, despite marriage equality, there is still deep prejudice against gay men in parts of the community,” he said.
“It is vital that we stand against this kind of hate so I urge gay men in NSW to take action under NSW’s anti-vilification provisions.”
While legal recourse remains an option for Greenwich, he has made it clear he does not intend to lodge any sort of complaint and instead wants to reform the laws protecting the LGBTQ+ community in NSW and improve the parliamentary culture.
“This has obviously been hurtful for me,” he said on Friday.
“I had a bit of a cry late yesterday at the end of the day … I didn’t think I’d still be subjected to homophobic abuse, but I woke up refreshed and really recommitted to dealing with LGBTI law reform in NSW to working with my colleagues.”
Greenwich has sought support in these efforts from the Labor government, which on Friday was yet to reach the 47 seats required to form a majority government a week after the state the election.
Latham, a former federal Labor leader, had served four years of his eight-year term as a state upper house MP but used a loophole at this year’s election that allowed him to resign and rerun at the top of the ticket in the hopes of increasing One Nation’s representation in the chamber.
At this stage, it appears he will be re-elected but the One Nation vote did not grow. The makeup of the upper house will be finalised next month.
Latham has not responded to request for comment.
