The Latham Diaries (1 Viewer)

[MoonlightSonata]

Generator has posted a number of links to news on the soon-to-be released diaries of Mark Latham (available from Australian bookstores on 21 September).

I'm sure there will be a lot of interesting comment coming out of those diaries which might be best dealt with separately in this thread.

He's back: Latham's Spleen Inc

By Louise Dodson, Jordan Baker, Damien Murphy and Jeni Porter
September 15, 2005

He's back. Once the great hope of the Labor Party, Mark Latham has become its worst nightmare.

He has come out of hiding to engage in a kind of political scorched earth policy, to burn former colleagues and, according to an excerpt of his diaries, Labor's "poisonous and opportunistic" political culture.

In The Latham Diaries, he accuses his successor, Kim Beazley, of spreading false rumours of sexual harassment about him.

"Six weeks after I brought [Beazley] back on to the front bench in 2004, he was continuing his six-year campaign of smear and innuendo against me," Latham writes, according to an excerpt published in today's The Daily Telegraph.

He also says Labor is "irreparably broken", according to an excerpt in The Australian, and describes leadership aspirant Kevin Rudd as "a terrible piece of work" who is addicted to leaking stories to the media.

But Latham writes that the "cruellest cut of all" came from his mentor, the former prime minister Gough Whitlam. He learned from his closest political friend and Labor frontbencher, Joel Fitzgibbon, that Whitlam "wanted me gone from federal politics" - and to hand over his seat of Werriwa to a former Whitlam researcher, Stephen Chaytor.

A leaner - and, his former colleagues fear, meaner - Latham emerged yesterday to record his first television interview since leaving public life in January, to publicise his book.

Last night Beazley denied he had had any part in any smear campaign. "The claims are untrue and sad," he said. Beazley noted that at the time he was supposedly undermining the new leader, Latham had in fact congratulated him on a clean campaign for the leadership.

- Full Article: SMH

Latham's verdict: the system is sick

MARK Latham has written a book that transcends tact, loyalty and tragedy. It is a story about Latham's loss of faith: in the Labor Party, the political system and in the values of the Australian people.

There is no precedent for The Latham Diaries. Within weeks of the October 2004 election, Latham was psychologically broken. With a rapidity explicable only in terms of a profound personal trauma, he went from alternative prime minister to a refugee from politics.

That trauma had multiple causes: pancreatitis, political disillusionment and an emotional rejection of the intense invasions of his private life provoked by his public office. In the end, he snapped.

The Diaries capture this ride to political oblivion and what Latham calls his personal freedom. He denounces nearly all his former colleagues, and Latham, in turn, will be denounced when his book is released. He attacks or criticises Kim Beazley, Kevin Rudd (repeatedly), Jenny Macklin, Lindsay Tanner, Bob McMullan, Tim Gartrell (at length), Robert Ray, Stephen Conroy, Anthony Albanese, Wayne Swan, Stephen Smith, Bob Carr, Simon Crean and even Paul Keating and Gough Whitlam, among others.

Peter Costello will be armed with these pages at question time for the rest of this term. [...]

- Full Article: The Australian

Rudd 'no good on foreign affairs'

FORMER ALP leader Mark Latham had such a dislike and distrust of his colleague Kevin Rudd that he decided in April last year not to make him his foreign minister if Labor won the election.

"Rudd is a terrible piece of work," Mr Latham wrote on April 20 of the potential future leader. "Addicted to the media and leaking. A junior minister in government at best." [...]

Writing in The Latham Diaries, Mr Latham questions Mr Rudd's competence as foreign affairs spokesman, slams his cautious stand on Iraq, claims he has a heroin-like addiction to the media and reports on him breaking down after the election and sobbing as he pleaded to be made Treasury spokesman. [...]

- Full Article: The Australian

Beazley indecent: Latham

FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham has attacked the ALP as "irreparably broken" and accused current leader Kim Beazley of waging a "six-year campaign of smear and innuendo against me" that influenced his decision to leave politics.

"My commitment to the Labor cause was destroyed by the bastardry of others," Mr Latham says in The Latham Diaries, the inside story of his political career.

"I no longer regard Labor as a viable force for social justice in this country. Its massive cultural and structural problems are insoluble." [...]

- Full Article: The Australian (By Paul Kelly)

MP's back Beazley after Latham attack

Labor frontbenchers have lined up behind their leader Kim Beazley in the face of a scathing attack from his predecessor Mark Latham.

Mr Latham's soon-to-be released diaries place Mr Beazley at the heart of a six-year smear campaign against him. Extracts published in newspapers today quote Mr Latham as saying Mr Beazley was manipulative and opportunistic while preserving a public image of decency. He also says the Labor caucus is infested with "the sewer rats of the movement". [...]

- Full Article: SMH

 

[absolution*]

Have a cry, faggot.

 

[Generator]

Spiteful remarks aside, I'd love to see the ALP address the notions that the party is disease-ridden and that it's members are more concerned with personalities than with policies. I doubt that that will happen, though.

 

[erawamai]

Seems like Latham doesn't like anyone. Especially Kevin Rudd! He doesnt spare a single ALP front bencher.

As mentioned this morning on the Today show. This will give the Liberals insult fodder for the next 20 years.

 

[SashatheMan]

this is like primary school shit. writing diaries on people u dont like. omfg how gay is australian politics

 

[Rafy]

I agree with him on Rudd though.

 

[Meldrum]

Some say that the book won't sell, after this popularity it has got to.

 

[LadyBec]

Some say that the book won't sell, after this popularity it has got to.

i'd buy it.
Frankly I dont blame him for being bitter, and it raises some interesting questions.
Now if only the entire labor party would take a good long look at themselves and realise that some things really do have to change...

 

[heybraham]

althought it sounds a bit spiteful, just look at the things he's saying, it's true:

"I no longer regard Labor as a viable force for social justice in this country. Its massive cultural and structural problems are insoluble."
i used to regard that too, now all they care about are tax-cuts and other bullshit.

Labor is "irreparably broken"
look at all they've done to 'repair' themselves after last year's election. With or without Latham's scathing attacks, they have done nothing for the past year but focus on measly tax cuts. the alp has no ideas anymore, lol tax cuts? that doesn't solve the cultural and structural problems of this country. private schools will still get more money than public (latham planned to fix this during the last campaign), tax cuts will still only go to the rich (latham proposed cuts across the board, he is a realist, not everyone will be able to move themselves up into the top tax bracket, so he doesn't want people with lower income to be disillusioned when they miss the tax cuts), telstra is still going to be sold half-broken...kim beazley has said NOTHING as opposition leader, because he's just simply out of ideas, all he can do now is follow the liberals' lead.

kevin rudd: 'terrible piece of work'
well it's true, he's a tool at best.

 

[absolution*]

fucking retards. rudd > Labor.

 

[Sweets]

Latham, is nothing but a bitter fool, forever known as the man who thank god wasn't Prime Minister.

 

[nwatts]

I'd be pissed off if I was Latham. Beazley is a bastard. While I'm not going to buy his book, I'd be keen to read it.

Although, I quite like Kevin Rudd. Hopefully he'll be their next leader.

 

[Generator]

Latham's interview with Denton will screen tonight at 8.30, and he'll also be on tonight's Lateline programme.

Edit: I'm off for a time. Have fun .

 

[paper cup]

Beazley a 'waste of space'.

 

[absolution*]

Beazley a 'waste of space'.

lololololol

 

[Rafy]

look out for his interview on enough rope

And the lateline interview.

He may be bitter, but that dosent mean that everything he says is false. Much of it i suspect has some element of truth to it.

 

[Rafy]

His interview on enough rope has been delayed due to an injunction by News Limited/

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Excellent... I just got home from work, I would have missed it

 

[Rafy]

Legal action puts Latham interviews on hold
September 15, 2005 - 9:24PM

News Limited tonight obtained an injunction prohibiting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from broadcasting any programs featuring interviews with former Labor leader Mark Latham.

In a brief statement released tonight, News Ltd said Justice Palmer handed down the ex parte interim injunction in the equity division of the NSW Supreme Court.

"Justice Palmer's ruling prohibits the ABC from broadcasting any program featuring an interview with Mark Latham or any extract therefrom the subject of the Latham diaries until 4pm on Monday, the 19th of September," the statement said.

It was authorised by Paul Whittaker, the national chief of staff of The Australian newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the ABC said she understood News Ltd had won a 24-hour injunction against any screening of the interviews with Mr Latham.

News Ltd's The Australian reported today that under an $80,000 deal with Latham's publishers, The Australian shares the rights to the diaries with other News Ltd papers.

The broadcast of the interview, which had been due to air next Monday, was brought forward by four days to 8.30pm tonight.

At the time it was due to go to air, ABC announced the injunction had prevented its screening.

The injunction also ruled out tonight's screening of another interview with Mr Latham on the ABC's Lateline program, which usually goes to air about 10.30pm.

In a statement on its website, the ABC said News Ltd applied for the injunction on the grounds of a breach of confidentiality and a breach of contract with Melbourne University Press, Mr Latham's publisher.

An ABC spokeswoman later said the ABC had been unsuccessful in its application to dissolve the injunction, and that the program would screen as originally advertised.

AAP

 

[Rafy]

The interview is being broadcast right NOW. The injuntion was overturned?