Mark Latham and Gareth Ward show NSW politics is turning into the Jerry Springer show

NSW’s legislators barely paused Friday morning to mark the belated departure of one of their own - a partially blind albino sex offender who sought to retain his seat from prison - before trying to cauterize a feud between two influential independents dominating Parliament.

Independent MP Alex Greenwich pleaded with his fellow MPs not to accede to a demand orchestrated by his nemesis, Mark Latham, to give him Mr Greenwich’s private communications over sensitive legal changes.

Comparing the upper house, where Mr Latham has emerged as a powerful force, to the now-cancelled Jerry Springer talk show, the member for Sydney alleged that Mr Latham was running a campaign against him facilitated by the Liberal-National Coalition and the Greens party.

“It was particularly the focus of the Honourable Mark Latham to make sure he got as much as possible on me as he could,” Mr Greenwich told parliament today.

Odd couple

Mr Greenwich and Mr Latham could not be more different, personally and politically. Mr Greenwich is a married, gay, inner-city progressive who works closely with the minority Labor government to shape laws. Mr Latham is a right-wing populist who dated an OnlyFans worker and relentlessly attacks the State government and its leading ministers.

After successfully suing him for defamation, Mr Greenwich says Mr Latham’s continuing attacks on him have caused him such serious psychological harm that he has been forced to seek treatment from a parliament-appointed psychologist. On Friday, he complained of the “weaponisation of my mental health,” by Mr Latham.

Mr Latham ridicules the complaints. “One can only conclude that the Alex Greenwich and his fear of large gatherings and the man we saw on the float with (Mayor) Clover Moore at the gay Mardi Gras, lapping it up and enjoying it, was, in fact, a body double in the style of Saddam Hussein,” he told Parliament this week.

Their conflict has grown into a stand off between the two houses of Parliament. Convinced of Mr Greenwich’s case, the lower house on Friday took the unusual step of rejecting the demand for documents, emails and text messages covering negotiations about reducing the cost of workers compensation, which the government argues has been hit by an explosion in mental health claims.

Upper house MPs now have to decide if they will ask the NSW Supreme Court to enforce what has long been accepted as their right to obtain government documents, which could drag the judiciary into what is essentially a personality-driven political fight.

Byelection

Adding to the drama, both sides are about to fight a byelection for Kiama, a seat south of Wollongong. Rather than be expelled from Parliament on Friday morning - the first MP to receive such a fate since 1917 - former Liberal Gareth Ward’s resignation was received by the speaker at 9.08am.

The case is one of the most remarkable in the State’s history. Charged in 2022 with rape and indecent assault against young men, the undeclared gay MP not only refused to resign, he was so popular in Kiama that he won the 2023 state election as an independent.

There were warning signs. In 2020 the police were called to his apartment in Potts Point, a harbourside suburb. They found Ward standing outside, naked, according to the ABC.

He “appeared to be disorientated,” they said. He refused help. An hour later they returned after someone complained he was in a common area of the building in his underpants.

After a jury convicted Ward on July 25, he insisted he could continue to represent the seat from prison while appealing the verdict. From Cessnock Correctional Centre, Ward asked the Supreme Court to prevent Parliament firing him.

His barrister was another former Liberal MP, Peter King, who unsuccessfully ran as an independent against Malcolm Turnbull in 2004 after being disendorsed.

On Friday Ward was condemned by both sides of politics. In the last Liberal Government, though, as the minister for families, communities and disability services, he was cited as an example of triumph over adversity.

The byelection will be an important test of the popularity of the Labor Government, which is two seats short of a majority.

Fighting over Palestine

Elected in 2023, Premier Chris Minns has concentred on public transport, schools and approving more housing. A Resolve poll three weeks ago put the government ahead by 57 to 43 per cent, a huge lead that may give it a chance of winning Kiama.

Recently, though, some left-wing Labor MPs have ignored Mr Minns’ direction to stay out of foreign affairs, creating the impression he can’t control his party. On Sunday Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and seven other Labor MPs participated in the anti-Israel march across Sydney Harbour Bridge, a protest Mr Minns tried to prevent.

On Thursday a backbencher, Anthony D’Adam, said he was prevented from speaking at a private meeting of Labor MPs when he tried to criticise the government’s policy on the protest.

“In the meeting, I was howled down, abused (and) told I should resign from the Labor party,” Mr D’Adam told parliament. “A motion was moved to gag me from speaking. In my entire time in the Parliament, I have never witnessed such an event.

“No apology has been received for the bullying behaviour I was forced to endure. It is deeply disturbing that the caucus appears incapable of entertaining dissenting views and took the step that it did.”

Cover up?

Mr Minns said the debate was curtailed so MPs could attend question time. While the even-tempered premier usually brushes off any criticism, Mr Latham’s frequent personal attacks seem to get to him.

Even by Mr Latham’s standards, this week marked an aggressive performance from the former Labor leader. As parliament debated whether to censure him for allegedly disclosing confidential information, he berated, insulted and accused his enemies.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you coward, you dog!” he yelled at Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on Wednesday.

Mr Latham, who has been accused of abusive behaviour by a previous partner, was part-way through a speech alleging Labor ministers tried to cover up a sexual assault of a young political adviser in 2015.

“Labor has lied,” Mr Latham said. “Labor has covered up. Labor has collaborated with the sexual predator and given him comfort.”

(The NSW Labor Party’s administrative head was forced to resign in 2016 after the woman accused him of trying to kiss her in a Parliament House office.)

On X Friday, Mr Latham referred to Mr Minns as “Crooked Chris” and a “House of Cards FU Premier”, an apparent reference to Frank Underwood, a fictional politician who murders a troublesome journalist.

Mr Minns’ office chose not to respond to the post, but the Premier could not complain too much. As a shadow minister seven years ago, he used the same TV-inspired insult to describe National Party leader John Barilaro, who was cleared of corruption in 2023.