Mark Latham busted being a secret member of Team Gillard in yet another orchestrated hate campaign against Kevin Rudd. #AusPol #Lametham A petty little hate squad. Mark Latham’s secret role as Julia Gillard backer THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 02, 2014 12:00AM FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham has been caught out over denials he was part of a defensive media strategy to try to keep former prime minister Julia Gillard in her job. The Weekend Australian can reveal Mr Latham was courted to return to the Labor fold in 2012 and support Ms Gillard in the media as she battled to hold off Kevin Rudd. In the wake of these revelations, Mr Rudd has described Mr Latham as “full of hatred”. In his Australian Financial Review column three weeks ago Mr Latham denied any contact with Ms Gillard’s office, but now, after being confronted with contradictory evidence, has admitted to dealings with her communications director John McTernan. In his July 12 piece Mr Latham said he gave the AFR permission to pass on his email address to the prime minister’s office in June 2012. “But then nothing happened,” he wrote. “To this day ... I have no idea what it was about.” But leaked emails show that by March the following year the commentator was sharing information and encouragement with Mr McTernan as they tried to protect Ms Gillard from Mr Rudd’s internal manoeuvres and the growing Australian Workers Union controversy. Mr Latham even provided the prime minister’s office with an advance draft of an article for The Monthly magazine, in which he attacked former senator Graham Richardson and the NSW ALP’s Right faction, who were swinging behind Mr Rudd. Former advisers from Ms Gillard’s office have detailed a deliberate strategy to leverage Mr Latham’s media work for AFR and Sky News. When pressed on the emails and these claims Mr Latham initially stood by his denials but then relented. “Attacking Kevin Rudd for me became a hobby and I shared my hobbies with all sorts of people,” he admitted. “So I shared some fun with people, so what?” Just weeks after denying dealings with Ms Gillard’s office, Mr Latham revealed a different version of events. He said Mr McTernan contacted him “towards the end of 2012” and wanted to have a discussion. “If people want to talk to me, Paul Howes, Jim Chalmers, John McTernan, well we have a chat, so what? But there’s no evidence that any of these people have changed my views on any subject.” Labor sources say Mr Latham was initially wooed after the then AWU boss, Mr Howes, spoke at the National Press Club in May 2012, praising Mr Latham. Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger, a Sky News colleague of the former Labor leader, helped to organise a meeting between Mr Latham and Mr Howes. Mr Howes then pressed Mr Chalmers (former chief of staff to Wayne Swan and now federal MP) to meet Mr Latham. In his book, Glory Daze, Mr Chalmers wrote “months after I left the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, my friend Paul Howes picked me up from Sydney airport for the long drive southwest to meet up with former Labor leader Mark Latham. “I had promised Howes I would go and see Latham after my stint in the service of the government had ended, and this visit was that promise made good.” Insiders insist the decision to bring Mr Latham back was driven by Mr Howes, but he denies this. Former senior advisers who worked in Ms Gillard’s office confirmed Mr McTernan was in regular contact with Mr Latham and directed junior media and policy advisers to assist his research for AFR columns; in which he often defended the prime minister or attacked journalists reporting the AWU scandal. A former senior adviser said Mr McTernan “controlled that relationship” and that “Latham proved himself to be a valuable voice for us, especially at times when Gillard’s operation was becoming overrun by significant issues such the AWU and Rudd’s destabilisation”. “He would talk to Latham about what he thought needed to be said or the sorts of things that would be helpful for Latham to say,” the former adviser said. Another former Gillard adviser said Mr Latham was used “as a mouthpiece to put shit on the Rudd camp’’. “It was a known thing that McTernan was helping Latham behind the scenes. There was a whole strategy of getting Latham back in,’’ the source said. “McTernan was part of a wider campaign to have regular communication with Latham to use him as a dirt machine. “Helping him with his columns was part of that.” When Mr Latham claimed last month there had been no contact with the prime minister’s office, he said the AWU issue had not been raised in June 2012. But the AFR ran the key allegations in a page one story on June 22, 2012, based on a speech by former attorney-general Robert McClelland, and referring to union corruption and Ms Gillard’s dealings with the AWU and Bruce Wilson. Emails, part of the tranche leaked to then ABC political reporter Latika Bourke (now with Fairfax) show Mr McTernan used taxpayer-funded staff in March last year to help with research for Mr Latham. “I’m writing something about Chris Kenny and PIMA (relating to the Public Interest Media Advocate bill) for Thursday AFR,’’ the former Labor leader wrote. “Could someone look at this in the Parl library, please, please. “Much appreciated. Many thanks, mark.” Mr McTernan promptly emailed staff, directing them to help Mr Latham with the research. In another email exchange on March 21-22 last year, Mr Latham and Mr McTernan swapped congratulations over the former leader’s radio comments on 2UE. “A famous day: the Ruddites routed, the media discredited and Richo looking like a goose,’’ Mr Latham said, attaching his draft of an article to appear in the next edition of The Monthly. Inquiries into Mr Latham’s turnaround have unearthed how Mr Rudd had been emotionally supportive of Mr Latham early in his leadership. After days of revelations concerning Mr Latham’s family and personal life in December 2003, the new opposition leader needed to front the media with then foreign affairs spokesman Mr Rudd over pre-leadership anti-American sentiments. Apparently Mr Latham was so distressed when preparing behind closed doors for the press conference that he shed tears and cried on Mr Rudd’s shoulder. Contacted this week about the latest revelations, Mr Rudd was cautious. “The one, sadly consistent part of Mark Latham’s behaviour over the years is that he is always personal, always negative and almost always full of hatred, even towards people who have tried to be kind to him when he had been down,” the former prime minister said. “Nevertheless, I will adhere to my longstanding policy of not responding to the content of anything Mark Latham has to say.” Mr McTernan initially agreed to respond to questions from The Weekend Australian but failed to respond to emails. AFR editor Michael Stutchbury has also not responded to questions about the appropriateness of Mr Latham’s dealings and whether his denials would be corrected. Mr Latham is once more an ALP member and recently helped respected party elder John Faulkner launch Local Labor, a NSW group lobbying to change party rules.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 21:35:01 +0000