Tense moment Mark Latham gets into a heated exchange with Teal independent ‘puppetmaster’: You’re a complete and utter fraud’
- Mark Latham took aim at Simon Holmes a Court in interview
One Nation MP Mark Latham has taken aim at Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court in a tense TV interview on election night.
During the fiery stand-off Mr Latham called the Australian businessman ‘a complete and utter fraud’ because he claimed he was ‘pulling the strings’ of the teal candidates.
He said the teals should declare themselves as a political party after questioning who chose their five candidates.
‘Who (in the community) picked Judy Hannan in the seat of Wollindilly?’ Latham said.
‘You can’t answer that question because you’re a complete and utter fraud, that’s what you are,’ he claimed.
‘There’s been no democratic process… She picked herself and you funded her,’ he added.
‘That’s rubbish,’ Holmes a Court said.
Simon Holmes a Court has thrown his clout behind the teal candidates in both the NSW election and last year’s federal election
A fiery Latham took aim at Holmes a Court during a live cross on Saturday night
Mr Holmes a Court conceded that none of the five teal candidates funded by Climate 200 were likely to pull off a win.
‘We’ll be very happy if a number of these seats go marginal,’ he said.
‘Most of these seats haven’t changed hands in a generation or two. So bringing genuine contest in these seats and the community engaging in politics, that’s a win before we start.’
The Coalition government holds 45 seat – 33 for the Liberals and 12 for the Nationals, Labor 36, the Greens three, while there are nine independents, including two former Liberal MPs.
Labor went into Saturday’s election needing to win at least nine seats to claim government.
But Newspoll’s two-party-preferred result of 54.5-45.5 represents a 6.5 per cent swing against the Coalition, which would give Labor up to 10 extra seats.
That would give Labor the 47 seats for a majority without the support of the crossbench, but a uniform swing is doubtful.
In another boost for Labor, Mr Minns has scored a two-point leader as preferred premier over Mr Perrottet for the first time in this Newspoll.
