{"id":641166,"date":"2026-04-30T19:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641166\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:19:21","slug":"former-federal-labor-leader-ordered-to-pay-100k-for-offensive-tweet-to-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641166\/","title":{"rendered":"Former federal Labor leader ordered to pay $100k for offensive tweet to MP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/labor\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Labor\">Labor<\/a> leader Mark Latham has been ordered to pay a fellow state MP the maximum available penalty for vilifying him for his sexuality.The sexually explicit tweet from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/new-south-wales\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"NSW\">NSW<\/a> upper house independent in 2023 has previously been ruled to be defamatory by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/courts\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Federal Court\">Federal Court<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/3f83cd01-ffff-458c-8f7d-0799b62b7ec0.jpeg\"   alt=\"Independent MP Mark Latham speaks to media in Camden on Saturday 19th July 2025. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong\"\/>Independent MP Mark Latham speaks to media in Camden on Saturday 19th July 2025. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong (Sitthixay Ditthavong)<\/p>\n<p>Latham&#8217;s tweet came in response to a post quoting Greenwich describing him as a &#8220;disgusting human being&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The online sparring match between the two politicians followed violent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/protests\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"protests\">protests<\/a> outside a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/church\/2\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"church\">church<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/sydney\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Sydney&#039;s\">Sydney&#8217;s<\/a> southwest, where Latham was giving a pre-election speech in March 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal imposed the maximum penalty due to the extreme abuse Greenwich received and the intense impacts he felt.<\/p>\n<p>It found that Greenwich had suffered extreme psychological damage as a result of Latham&#8217;s actions.<\/p>\n<p>The tribunal did not order Latham to produce an apology, saying it would be pointless given it would likely not be genuine.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b7794b9d-4966-4d94-8fc4-5ec7b6a2fc5b.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>Latham was ordered to pay Greenwich&#8217;s legal costs. (Dominic Lorrimer)<\/p>\n<p>Greenwich welcomed the decision and said the result was a landmark ruling for LGBTQIA+ rights in the state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This decision sends a clear message: public figures are not above the law, and online platforms are not a space for unlawful vilification,&#8221; the member for Sydney said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The tribunal has made clear that the law does not require anyone to endure unlawful vilification or sexual harassment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Latham was ordered to remove any material from his social media that vilifies Greenwich based on his homosexuality and to refrain from making any more unlawful vilifying statements.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former federal Labor leader Mark Latham has been ordered to pay a fellow state MP the maximum available&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-641166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}