National Party leader David Littleproud says Pauline Hanson needs to show leadership and “take control” of the One Nation Party, as controversial MP Mark Latham ignores her directions to apologise for a homophobic tweet.
“Where is Pauline Hanson on this? Why is he even in a political party any more?” Mr Littleproud told Sky News on Monday.
“All she’s done is gone to ground saying, ‘He won’t call me back’.
“Take control of your party, call him in and show that you have some leadership.”
Mr Latham doubled down over the weekend, after posting a homophobic tweet directed at independent MP Alex Greenwich, that drew condemnation from political and community leaders last week.
Ms Hanson, One Nation’s federal leader, called Mr Latham’s comments “disgusting” and called on him to apologise last week. She said the leader of the party’s NSW wing had been ignoring her calls and texts.
After the calls from his federal leader, Mr Latham tweeted, “Never apologise, never explain” on Friday.
“We have a privileged position as politicians and if someone oversteps the mark, they need to be hauled in, and they need to give an explanation,” Mr Littleproud said.
“If their explanation isn’t good enough, then you have to have the courage and conviction to move them on.”
Senator Hanson declined to comment on Monday when contacted by AAP.
It comes Mr Greenwich’s office had made reports to police after receiving harassing phone calls and graphic online abuse.
“My office has had repeated calls from people making offensive remarks,” Mr Greenwich said on Monday. “We’ve had to report a number of people to the police.”
Last week, NSW Premier Chris Minns condemned the comments by Mr Latham, saying they were “terrible” and would “unleash ghouls” on the openly gay MP.
“Mr Minns is absolutely right. Mr Latham has unleashed the ghouls,” Mr Greenwich said.
A number of One Nation supporters had reached out to the Sydney MP to offer their support saying they were outraged by Mr Latham’s comments, Mr Greenwich said in a weekend interview with The Project.
Mr Minns praised Mr Greenwich as an extraordinary politician, and said Mr Latham’s comments needed to be unambiguously rebuked.
“I think that they’re vile and shameful comments and I think (Mr Latham) revealed himself to be a bigot,” the premier said on Friday.
The state government committed to not engaging with Mr Latham in parliament, and called for the Liberal-National coalition to make a similar commitment.
Mr Latham has since deleted the tweet, saying he did not think it was appropriate for children to read.
It comes as Mr Latham announced he would be on leave until vote counting finished in the upper house, on April 20.
The One Nation MP used a loophole in the parliamentary system allowing him to resign his position four years early, and stand for re-election at the state election. He will re-enter parliament with a renewed eight-year term.
AAP has contacted NSW One Nation MPs Rod Roberts and Tania Mihailuk for comment.
